Masks
by Neo the Saiyan angel
Summary: "I never gave up. But… Feeling… Is hard. I can't tell if what I'm feeling is me or the mask I wear. And I think… I might not be me anymore. At least, the real me. The me that doesn't want to be… Alone."
1. Chapter 1

Kim sighed to herself as she made her way to her locker. Hump day had come and gone, leaving the student body with two more days of school before the weekend

And a week and change until the upcoming dance.

It wasn't a big deal, really. _Nothing_ like the Big Deal that was the next event. Nothing in high school could top prom, after all. Some would even argue it topped graduation! It was supposed to be the pinnacle of the high school experience. The best night of your teenage life.

Kim didn't have a date for this dance. It was no big; she'd just freeflow by herself for this one. It brought up the niggling little thought that she didn't have a date for prom yet, but she easily brushed it away. It was still a decent length of time away. She'd be able to find _someone _to go with before it started.

Unsurprisingly, Ron was waiting by her locker. What _did_ surprise her was the look on his face. He looked… Well, down was an understatement. She could almost believe that someone in his family had died! Rufus sat on the blond's shoulder, looking on with worry.

"Ron?" She walked up next to him and nudged his other shoulder. "What's wrong?"

That seemed to snap him out of it. Suddenly his expression changed to merely being chagrined as he sputtered, "Oh, uh, hi KP!" He scratched the back of his head. "I was just lost in thought 'n' stuff."

Kim tilted an eyebrow at that. "About _what_?"

He gave a nervous laugh. "Nothing big! Just thinking about…" His eyes wandered away from her as he trailed off for a moment. "...about the dance."

"Ah." Relieved it was just about the upcoming event, Kim shrugged and reassured him, opening her locker, "It's nothing to worry about. It's not like it's prom or anything!"

"Says you!" Ron said dramatically.

"What's so big about this dance?" the redhead asked as she considered her books. Did they get any history homework?

"W-.. Well…" she heard him stutter slightly. "I just… Really wanted to go to this one."

"So… Just go?" Kim peeked around her locker at him. He had that look on his face again!

He caught her looking at him and again his expression changed, this time to exasperation. "I can't find anyone to go with!"

Kim thought on that. She was totally fine going to this one alone. Practically looking forward to it! But she got where Ron was coming from. Sifting through her various classmates in her head, she began with, "Tara?"

"She's going with Mankey," Ron grumbled, starting to pout.

The heroine tapped her chin. "Lily?"

"Going with James."

"What about…" She reached around in her brain for single ladies who Ron had a chance of going out with. "...Dany?"

Ron sighed. "Jon."

Kim blinked. Weird. She could've sworn those two were cousins or something… Shaking it off, she continued, now definitely going for the long shots, "Cordelia?"

"She said she was going to be washing her hair with Xander."

"With _Xander_?" She would've never guessed those two doing _anything _together.

"I know! Like, why would she need help doing her hair and how could it take longer than 5 hours?" Clearly the rejection went over his head.

Typical Ron.

"You could always go alone," Kim pointed out. "I plan on doing that."

"You mean… You don't have a date?" The hopeful look in his eyes made her heart twinge with guilt. Overpowering that was the snide little Bonnie voice in her head mocking her for giving in and dating the high school loser.

Ron wasn't a loser! He _wasn't_! Kim just… She didn't like upsetting the food chain like that.

"I'm going _alone_," she repeated. His expression looked like a kicked puppy. But she stayed the course. They couldn't do that together. Not only for the food chain, but their friendship… It was too important to risk on a long shot.

Ron started, "But KP…"

She shook her head. "Sorry Ron." Deciding to downplay it a little, she shrugged and commented, "It's just one dance, anyway. Not like there haven't been _others_ we've been to."

He made one of his weirder expressions and nervously laughed. "Yeah, that's true."

She ducked her head back into her locker to pull out that history book. "So what's one more in the grand scheme of things?"

"Yeah, just one more…" The doubt and discontent in his voice was palpable, but it was no big. Ron was fine. He always was.

...did they have any biology homework?

* * *

Drakken blinked at the screen.

Currently he was watching his teenage foe on a monitor in his current lair inside of a mountain. He'd sent a robo-drone spy that he'd affectionately dubbed 'fly-spy' to watch her and keep him updated on her relationship status. He didn't care that he'd designed it to look like a wasp. Fly-spy just sounded cooler.

Her classes and gossip were boring yet important drivel that he was cataloguing for his 'teenage wasteland' experiment. His research was nearing completion. He nearly had enough data compiled to know his foe inside and out. What he would do with it he still wasn't entirely sure yet. He needed to distract her somehow...

There was something else, though, that had caught his attention.

The boy… What was his name? Like sand through an hourglass the memory eluded him. But that wasn't so important. He _was_ just the sidekick for the teen heroine. A useless buffoon that no one cared about. That took to life like a fool, with no care in the world.

Except…

Drakken narrowed his eyes and watched the blond intently. It took a few mores words between the two, Kim Possible being absorbed in her locker, before it happened. Again, the stricken, lost look crossed the young man's face. It was a look the bad doctor had seen before.

When Doctor Drakken had been Drew Lipsky. When he had been lonely, labeled a freak by his peers and left to be by himself, always. Most of the time Drew had been able to brush it off, proclaiming his genius which was ahead of the era he was born in. But some days… Some days Drew Lipsky let himself _feel_. Feel the despair of loneliness. Isolation. Hatred. Simply for being him.

The look on the sidekick's face was familiar. How could it not be? On those bad days, when he felt raw and exposed to the world, it was the expression that looked back at him from the mirror.

It made him feel… _Something_. He couldn't quite label what it was. Pity? Nostalgia? Worry? Why he would feel worried for the blond he had little clue. In fact, the very _idea_ of the doctor feeling anything but contempt for the young man was almost laughable.

And yet here he was.

Drakken leaned backwards in his chair and thought. What, exactly, did he know about the boy besides him being the sidekick to his arch-foe? He knew they shared a love of Snowman Hank. He also had that bald weasel as a pet. Otherwise…

Sure, there were inferences he could make. He was a poor student. A bit laissez faire. A lackey inside and out. ...but the same things could have been said about himself, back when he was in school. His mind too advanced for the simpleton tests led his early performances in school to be less than stellar. His grasp of the complexity of the English language was _still_ awful. He got angry at anyone that insulted him, yet at the same time he let the comments and sneering roll off of his back. Carefree, naive, unpopular…

Suddenly, Drakken found himself extraordinarily interested in the sidekick. Maybe… There was more there than he thought. Maybe. He _did_ keep up with Kim Possible in her adventures. And Drakken _was_ trying to take anything and everything into account for this newest plot. Cover all his bases, make sure nothing could stand in his way to world conquest. So it would only be _natural _to learn more about the blond. See what makes _him_ tick too. Maybe even distract him in a similar manner! Oh, nothing as involved as the teenage wasteland project, but if the boy was anything like Drakken had been at that age then _anyone_ would do for-..

Drakken growled at himself and tapped his fingers against the control panel for his computers. He hated thinking about his younger, more vulnerable days. He'd managed to coat that core of naivety, childish joy, and vulnerability with a layer or few of anger and megalomania. Looking back on them was almost like admitting he was wrong in some way.

But that little part of him, the niggling little part of him that was Drew Lipsky, felt a pull in the direction of the sidekick. Thus he decided to follow the boy the next day instead of Kim Possible. His teenage wasteland experiment was nearly over, he reasoned, so it would make sense to start focusing some research on the blond. Really make sure to cover his bases.

What he discovered made him uncomfortable. It was like flashing back to his own childhood, his awful younger days of abuse and neglect.

The boy - Ron, as the other kids had called him - had to pay a 'passage fee' to bullies when going down a specific hallway. Coincidentally that same hallway seemed to be the only way to one of his classes, meaning he had to pay that fee every day just to make it to that particular class.

There was one student… Felix? The boy in the wheelchair. They had a genuine if shallow conversation for a minute between classes. The blond soaked the attention up like a sponge, even exaggerating some of his foolish goofiness to catch more of the other boy's attention. Swiftly, though, the time ended and the brunette rolled away down the hallway. Ron waved him goodbye, leaving his hand up longer than he should've before dropping it down listlessly. His dawdling led him to being late to his next class, to which the teacher, a drill sergeant type, berated him and piled on extra homework for the besmirching.

Kim Possible flitted around the blond throughout the day. But… It was shallow. Just plain old _shallow_. They talked about practically nothing, most of it in relation to the redhead in some fashion or another. Who she was hanging out with, what projects she was working on, how she felt about this or that boy... Again, he played the fool, his falsely bright smile making Drakken frown. The blue man wanted to slap Ron silly, almost as a self-directed reproach for the behavior.

Eventually Drakken pinpointed at least one of the words for how he was feeling. It felt like… _Kinship_. The sidekick _knew_ what it all felt like, what that lonely isolated life was like. Somehow. Apparently being the so-called 'best friend' of the girl that could do anything wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

As the boy gathered his books, again laiden with homework no one else had to do, Drakken considered what to do with this new information. His new target.

Drakken needed to do something. Something about the boy's situation. This was… It felt important. Even more important than the teenage wasteland project. Even more than-..

Drakken bodily shook. He put a hand to his head, wondering if he was getting sick. Because…

_This felt more important than __**world conquest**_.

The scientist blinked a few times, then rubbed his head. This… This couldn't be right. It just _couldn't_. Conquering the world was his _life_. His purpose. Yet the boy, Ron, was feeling like he was more important than _even that_.

...he clearly needed to rest. Go to bed, get a few extra hours of sleep. Drakken _had_ been obsessively working on the teenage wasteland experiment with barely any rest for the last few weeks. It was nearing completion. He could spare a day or two to catch up on his sleep.

Drakken stood and made his way for his bedroom, deciding to simply let his drone do some passive recon. It wouldn't cause any issues if he gave himself a day to reset. In fact, it would probably be beneficial. Get all this nonsense about the sidekick out of his head.

It was a simple skip through memory lane that was making him feel off. That's all. Just needed some rest to get back to normal...

* * *

Things didn't go back to normal like Drakken had hoped.

Once again he found himself at his console, watching the sidekick go through his day. He felt almost _compelled _to. Drakken _needed_ to see that it wasn't as bad as he thought, that his feelings from the day before were just a fluke.

To his annoyance and, strangely, fear, it was all the same.

A mild sense of horror settled on him as he again watched the same scenes as the previous day play out. It was just like him. _The blond was just like him_. The _same_ rejection, over and over. An ache in Drakken's chest confused him. He didn't _think_ he'd eaten anything spicy…?

"What's Doctor Dorkasaurus doing today?"

The voice cut through his thoughts, surprising him enough to nearly fall out of his chair. He was shocked to find Shego watching the screen over his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Didn't I send you off on one of your vacations?"

"Eh. I got bored." She shrugged after shooting him a quick glance before resuming looking at the screen. "What's going on? You gonna redo that stupid clone plot again?"

Drakken swallowed. He hadn't wanted Shego here for this part. It was all recon, so it had no need for her skills. It _also_ needed concentration and there was no chance of accomplishing that with her snark being shot like a blow dart every few minutes. _And_ he didn't want her to find out until he was practically victorious. Really prove to her how awesome he was.

Hadn't he locked the door?

"Wait." Shego narrowed her eyes. "This is following… The sidekick?" She blinked a few times. "_Why_?"

"I'm trying to account for anything that could wreck my next plot," he lamely defended. "Including Ron."

"Oh, so you know his name now? 'Ron'?" A vicious laugh sounded from her. "You bonding over the fact that you're both losers?"

Drakken grit his teeth at the insult, but desperately tried to keep from responding. If he said anything she would probably realize she was right. If she realized she was right… He didn't know exactly what would happen, but he knew it would be bad.

She snorted then, apparently taking his reaction at face value. "You do realize you're wasting your time, right?"

He tilted his eyebrow at her, confused.

"He's a loser. Useless. Inconsequential. _Nothing_ would happen if you didn't 'account' for him," she explained. "Why waste the effort when you should be focusing on Kimmie?"

"I'm accounting for _anything_," Drakken insisted.

"Hm…" She turned and studied him for a moment. "Well…" Another shrug. "Whatever. It's your time, your plot. And I guess if the blond dork went villain again there really would be something to worry about."

After a moment, Drakken made a shooing motion. "So, now that you know what I'm up to, are you going to _leave me alone_?"

"Ugh." Shego raised her hands in mock defeat. "Fine, fine. I'll leave you and your weirdo plan alone." She turned, then paused. "You still want that Nakasumi guy kidnapped, yeah?"

"Yes." He steepled his fingers in glorious evilness. "I need him and his brilliant mind here for me to probe. But…" Drakken checked the Snowman Hank calendar he had hanging next to the console to keep track of the timeline until Kimberly Anne's prom. "...he won't be out in public until that parade thing they're throwing. In two weeks. Until then…" he waved her away, "Go do whatever you want to do. Go ski or something. I don't care."

"Whatever you say, _boss_." With that, she threw her hair behind her and finally thankfully exited the room.

After a moment, Drakken hopped up and locked the door.

He then rested his back against it and sighed as he let himself slide to the floor.

Shego was right. What was he thinking? Ron had absolutely nothing to offer. He wouldn't get in the way of his plan. He was just a distraction! Someone that-..

Drakken paused.

That got in the way.

That was his _entire_ role. To get in the way. Kimberly Anne destroyed the plan, but the sidekick was the one that brought them to a screeching halt.

There was also something that Shego had said. About Ron being…

...a good villain.

Drakken's mind rushed as he thought on these ideas. Tried to fit the obvious conclusions into his current plot. Tried to think of a way to save-..

Nonono, no. This wasn't about saving that, that boy from the same pain. That would just be _absurd_. No, this had to be about his plot. His plan to conquer the world. He had to account for _everything_. Including Ron and his ability to get in the way.

There was one interesting little conclusion he drew from it all. Sure, it might be a long shot, but if he didn't get everything squared away his plot would fail anyway! Best to try and get everything lined up. And if Ron really was like how Drakken was as a young man…

Drakken hopped to his feet and struggled with the door. Then he remembered he'd locked it. He then unlocked it and practically tore the door off its hinges.

"**SHEGO**!" he bellowed as loudly as he could. After a few moments he heard her loudly grumbling her way back down the hall to him.

"What is it? Finally decided to tell me why you're being so weird?" she asked as she once again stood in front of him, hip cocked.

"No, nothing like that. You'll find out my plan in due time," Drakken said smugly. "You see, I actually _do_ need you to do something for me…"

* * *

Ron sighed as he puttered his way back home on his scooter.

KP was busy finishing the plans for the next dance. The dance that would be the next Saturday. The dance that Ron… Couldn't go to.

Oh, he'd tried to go to a few dances before. But if he didn't end up locked in a closet for the weekend, he was stuck awkwardly standing in the corner while girls made faces and whispered to each other. He got the bad feeling it was about him. So Ron had decided not to go to another dance unless it was with someone. Because then hey, there would be someone to totally hang out with!

...but that wasn't working out either.

Kim night was cancelled this week because of the planning. Heck, he didn't think he'd see her at all this weekend!

It made Ron very… Uneasy. Worried. This wasn't the first time in the last few weeks KP had cancelled on him. There just seemed to be stuff that came up. Stuff that was more important than their hang-out time.

It… It was okay! They were still best buds! Nothing could break their bond! Best friends since pre-K. They'd be together for forever!

Sure, he didn't tell her _everything _about his life. He just didn't want to bug her. Those bullies only backed off for a week after they'd switched bodies anyway. What _else_ could Kim do?

That still left him all by his lonesome for the weekend. Him and Rufus could always play on Everlot. Or more Zombie Mayhem. But it would be kind of lame to play those without Zita or Felix. They were already busy, so he couldn't ask them to hang out. Monique was working all weekend too, so she wasn't available either.

So that left vegging out to some awful movies. Nooooot marathoning stuff like he did when his family got cable. That had been a Bad Road. Ron wasn't keen to go slightly insane again. Or, hey! They could marathon Bricks of Fury! That could be fun!

Ron then noticed that he wasn't moving. His scooter was making the 'putt putt' noise, but wasn't moving forward.

Oh. He'd run into something. Weird. Must not have been paying enough attention. It didn't even show up in his side vision!

He shut his scooter down as he balanced onto his feet, preparing an apology for the person whose car he'd bumped into. Ron looked up, mouth open at the ready.

Then it dropped.

In front of him was Drakken's hovercar. Shego was standing up in it, hip cocked and mouth quirked. To Ron's surprise, she was alone. No sign of the bad doctor.

"Uhm…" He was at a bit of a loss. "Hi?"

"I can't believe I'm doing this. This is one of the _dumbest _ideas he's ever had," the green woman grumbled with crossed arms. "This is something so stupidly easy even _he_ could have done it! But noooo, gotta waste my time with this junk."

"I, uh…" His eyes darted around, trying to find a place to duck for cover. The problem was that they were in the middle of the street. Nothin' for him to dive behind. "So…" Ron's face settled into a rictus smile. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just running a quick, _really_ dumb errand for Doctor D," Shego said, shrugging.

"Good luck with that?" He desperately didn't want to try and take down Shego. And it wasn't like she was definitely doing something evil. She might just be picking up milk! Deciding to leave it lie, he twisted the wheels of his scooter so it was no longer running into the hovercar and started it back up. "Well, I gotta get going! KP and Global Justice and Wade are all waiting for me and would totally send out a search party if I'm even five minutes late!"

A sneering smile greeted him when he looked back up at her. "Yeah, I'm _so_ sure. Is that why Kimmie is all camped out at the school decorating crap?"

Ron swallowed. Then, in a high-pitched squeak, he said, "Yes?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Doesn't change my errand."

He tried to not give in to his curiosity. Ron really did! But she was being _so_ vague about it… Closing one eye and squinting at her, he asked, "And that is…?"

Now all her bright perfect teeth shone at him as she gave an open-mouthed smile. Her eyes narrowed, and Ron was absolutely certain that she had been waiting for him to ask that.

Suddenly she hopped down, grabbed both Ron and his scooter, and tossed them into the back of the hovercar.

"Ahh!" Ron landed heavily in the seat, his scooter tilting on top of him in a heap. He shot a quick glance at Rufus' pocket, a spike of fear hitting him as he realized that it was being squished. To his relief, his buddy had fallen out of the pocket. Rufus was clearly disoriented, grabbing at his head and chittering nonsense. As his pink friend shook his head to clear it, a clawed hand grabbed the mole rat tight and lifted him up.

"Why hello there, rat!" Shego said, lighting up one of her fingers with plasma. "Wouldn't do to have you wreck things by telling anyone, so you're coming with too." The ignited finger settled against the now struggling mole rat's forehead. "Nighty-night!"

The plasma surged into Rufus' forehead. His eyes widened for a moment before he went totally limp.

"Rufus!" Ron began pushing his scooter in panic. He _needed_ Rufus to be okay! His buddy couldn't go out like this! He just _couldn't_!

Shego tossed Rufus carelessly against the back seat. "Would you relax? He's fine. Just knocked out."

"You won't get away with this! I'm all chipped and everything!" Ron shouted, shaking a fist. "They'll totally find me before your evil plan thing starts up."

"You're chipped, eh? Good to know! I guess Kimmie really _does_ keep you on a leash like her own personal loser pet, eh?" Her finger lit up again as she leaned over and settled it against Ron's forehead. To Ron's curiosity, he couldn't feel the sharp ouchiness of the claw. Just a weird warmth. "Plasma shot, take two."

The warmth surged and flooded his head-..

* * *

**A/N: ** Don't expect this to update very often. This is a harder topic for me to write on than most. I've been puttering around with this for literally years. Most of what I've got so far has been written in the last week. Even if I only post what I have so far I think I may have accomplished my attempt to write the best Rokken the site has seen. So I figured eh, might as well start posting it.

Hope whoever bothers to read this enjoys it.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** So, apparently there is a small but rather vocal crowd of you who want more. I decided eh, why not? It's ready and all. BUT! For real, this is it for a while. This is even more in the works than some of my other stuff. Enjoy this, as it will be few and far between. Very hard for me to write. The K/R sections for Fallout were easier, which is really weird to say.

This has quite a bit if Rokken in it, so hopefully it really will tide you guys over for a while.

Also, as a request... Instead of PMing me, could y'all leave me a review, anonymous or otherwise? Thanks in advance!

* * *

Ron grumbled softly to himself as he shifted around in bed. He had a strange headache, which was completely gnarly for a Saturday. Definitely not what he'd been hoping for with the weekend.

...what _had_ he been hoping for with his weekend? Everyone was busy, nothing was going on… He'd planned on marathoning Bricks of Fur-..

A green spark went through his thoughts.

_Shego_.

Shego had nabbed him. He was a kidnap victim! Great. That was _not_ what he was hoping his weekend would be like!

He was a little afraid to open his eyes. If he opened his eyes it would only confirm that he wasn't in his bed. Strangely, it felt like he was in _a _bed. Soft and squishy and smelling kinda girly flowery. But not _his_ bed.

And… Maybe if he pretended to be asleep they would leave him alone! Yeah! That's right! They would _totally _leave him alone if he stayed asleep. Any minute now KP would come bursting through the door to save him.

He squished his eyes together as tightly as he could, trying very hard to feign sleep. Very very hard. Solid as a rock. Yup.

It was what felt like forever later that a _swoosh! _of one of those advanced door things sounded, telling him that someone had either come in or left. From the footsteps it seemed like someone had come in.

There was a chittering noise - Rufus! He almost broke his cover by jerking around to find his buddy, but managed to stop himself. Rufus could take care of himself. Hiding would be super easy for him! Now, _Ron_ on the other hand…

It sounded like whoever it was stopped by the side of the bed. Ron tried reeeeaaaally hard to keep from hyperventilating. It would totally wreck his cover if he did!

After a minute or so the person let out a frustrated grunt, then said in a familiar evil guy voice, "I know you're awake. When you sleep you snore. _Very_ loudly."

Awwww man!

Ron tried to hop up and suddenly tackle Drakken. However, he found himself tangling in the sheets and falling to the floor in a confused twisted pile.

"Nnnnngh…" The sound of something being slapped hit Ron's ears. "_Must_ you always play the buffoon?"

"Not a buffoon!" Rufus growled from somewhere behind Ron.

"Tell your bald weasel to _shut it_!" Drakken demanded. "This little meeting is between you and me."

"He's a _naked mole rat_," Ron corrected as he wrestled himself free of the sheets, "and he can say what he wants!"

He pulled the last of the sheets off of his head and blinked a few times. This was… Ron tilted his head and looked around. What would evil people need with a room like _this_?

It was a teenage girl's room. Flowers and teen magazines and makeup and _everything _was scattered around on dressers and walls and a cameo… Heck, it looked a lot like KP's room back when she was a freshman!

Standing a few feet away, looking completely opposite of the room, was Drakken. He was towering over the blond, looking down with some mild contempt.

"You don't have to keep the act up, you know," Drakken said, waving a hand. "It's just the two of us. None of your teeny-bopper friends around to try and impress in an attempt to make them like you."

Huh? Ron was confused, but also felt a wave of insecurity hit him. Trying to cover it up, he awkwardly said, lips crooked, "I act like Ronster! Never be normal!"

Drakken's eyes narrowed for a moment before opening back up. "Should've realized it wouldn't be that easy… Okay then!"

He walked over to the door where there was a number panel. A few flicks of his fingers across the board made it flash a rainbow of colors before things suddenly started happening.

A mechanical whirring noise from behind him made him turn around. Ron realized there was a _window_! A giant window! What? It looked out into a hallway, but it was swiftly being covered up by metal panels shooting up and locking into the top of the sill. The same noise sounded from the door Drakken probably came in, another giant metal panel covering it just like the window.

"There. All locked up." Drakken dusted his hands off as if he'd done a heap of work. "Now it's just you, me, and your bald weasel." He grumbled a bit as he noted, "But it's only for one day. Need to finish my experiment. Stevens will need some time in here. Long enough to understand my foe."

Wea-.. Rufus! Ron's head twisted this way and that way until he spotted his best bud inside of a small cage. The bars were narrow enough to keep him from squeezing out, and there was a jumbo lock on the cage's door.

"He's fine," Drakken said with an eye roll. "All Shego did was knock him out, just like you."

That brought Ron's attention back to the big question.

"Why in the world did you kidnap me? I was totally going to marathon some movies!" Ron complained. Then, suspicious, he narrowed an eye and tilted his head. "Are you gonna pump me for info? 'cause I'm not going to talk!" He mimed zipping his lips. "Not getting anything out of me."

Drakken hunched over and let his arms hang limply as his left eye twitched. Then he said, "I can't believe I'm doing this. Maybe Shego's right, this might be too stupid… You clearly don't look like you want to listen, and I doubt you can keep your mouth shut."

Ron took that as a challenge. "There's plenty of secrets that I know and haven't blabbed about! Like Yama-.." Nope! Trying to get info! "Erm, stuff. That I can't talk about."

The villain sighed, then rubbed his head. "Nnnngh…" Then he shrugged. "Well, I've come this far… And who knows? Maybe I'll feel better afterwards."

Eh? Feel better after interrogating Ron? Suddenly torture devices like tickling feathers and the stretchy rack thing came to mind.

He swallowed.

Ron… Could do this. He wouldn't talk for anything! Yup! Lips sealed tight!

Drakken walked past Ron and sat on the sheetless bed. He settled down heavily, like he was getting ready for a big talk. It didn't _seem_ like he was getting ready to torture Ron…?

"I'm not… Sure where to start…" the blue man said. He almost sounded nervous! "Hm…" He put a finger to his chin. "I suppose I should start from the beginning.

"When I started school, I knew from the beginning I was different. Strange to other people. No one liked me. I tried, goodness I tried to get people to like me. But, once I got to middle school, I gave up. I was too 'out there'" he used finger quotes "for any of them to understand. Odd interests and ideas that far outpaced anything they could come up with. I began to strike out at them, trying time and again to prove my genius."

Ron settled down against the floor, curious. This wasn't quite what he imagined when he thought of being interrogated. This was, like, the exact opposite! Drakken was unloading stuff on him.

What Drakken was saying… It made him… _Uncomfortable_. It sounded familiar. But instead of lashing out, Ron…

He was snapped from his thoughts when Drakken continued, "But… Under the layers of, well, _me_… It hurt. A lot. I was alone. Completely alone. No one to count on, no one that cared. People just kept, _doing_ it. Mocking me, taking advantage of me… Making me feel like some kind of _buffoon_…

"I was treated as a _thing_. Just a strange little object that no one objected to being abused by whoever. I saw the bottom of a garbage more times than I care to admit. The only _good_ thing that ever happened from that was finding a fork at the bottom of the garbage once. Saved it from being tossed out." Drolly he said, "Definitely worth the spaghetti stains on my clothes.

"Money was taken from me. No one talked to me. Singled out by teachers as a freak and treated differently than others. It… Wore me down. So I started to ignore them as best I could. Do my own thing and prove that I'm not the loser they thought I was."

Each little sentence was a tiny cut to Ron's skin. It opened up little wounds inside him, that he tried to ignore. Covering them up with his goofiness. At that point Ron looked away from the villain, trying to ignore the odd parallels.

"I never gave up. But… Feeling… Is hard. I can't tell if what I'm feeling is me or the mask I wear. And I think… I might not be me anymore. At least, the real me. The me that doesn't want to be… _Alone_."

Ron stiffened, his eyes widening at the words. He turned to Drakken. The blue man was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at his hands. The fingers patted patterns against each other, aimless and distracting.

"You…" Ron's mouth flopped open and closed a few times. Against his will, his eyes began to water as the hurt little pieces of himself began to react. Swallowing, he managed to gasp out, "You know?"

He didn't specify. He didn't _need_ to. All the words he would have used were conveyed in the tone.

Drakken heaved a heavy sigh and turned to Ron. His eyes, misted over, stared straight into Ron's heart. "Yes. I know."

* * *

Drakken tried hard, to keep himself, the core of him, from flowing over. He was weeping internally at the very raw emotions he was trying to keep in check.

This was _not_ how he had imagined this little confessional session going. Drakken was planning on drowning himself in his anger, remembering the maltreatment that had been forced on him. Letting himself unleash some of the hate for the world on the sidekick.

But… As he talked, he could see Ron reacting to his words. It felt like he was talking to _himself_, and Drakken just… _Couldn't_. He _couldn't _maintain his anger. Not when he was letting out his own pain like he was. To someone that knew. Someone that understood. He'd never had the chance to talk about his childhood, the painful parts, with someone that might actually care enough to listen.

It was an entirely new sensation to the villain. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. It hurt, but it was a strange kind of hurt. Like the kind of hurt that you knew would feel better later.

And now he was simply staring at Ron. He was trying hard not to be emotional, even with as much as it hurt. If he stopped his misty-eyed stare at all he _knew_ he would start crying.

Why couldn't he have stayed angry? That would have been far more preferable to the gamut of sad painful emotions coursing through him. The blond had _no idea_-..

And then Drakken was taken by complete surprise as Ron began to cry. A horrible snot-filled affair that was suddenly shoved into Drakken's lap as the sidekick threw himself forward into the blue man.

He blinked in mild confusion, a few tears escaping from his eyes. Was he… Looking for reassurance? Drakken was uncomfortable at the development as the blond bawled his eyes out. Just as uncomfortable as he was genuinely crying in front of anyone.

...if Drakken were Ron, he would be looking for _anything_ to grasp onto.

Hesitantly, carefully, Drakken settled a hand on the boy's head and pat it a few times. The other one fought against the tears dripping from his eyes, swiftly wiping them out of existence.

But curse them, they kept coming.

"I… I never thought-.." the blond gasped out in a muffled burst before he hiccuped a few times. Then, lifting his head slightly, he said, "I knew you weren't very happy with school 'n' stuff… But…"

Ron shuddered again and pulled back before cupping his face in his hands.

"...I'm just like you," Drakken finally said out loud, his voice thick.

"Yeah, you are." Again the words were muffled. He dropped his hands a few inches and gave the blue man a tear-filled stare.

It felt strange looking down at someone that Drakken felt a connection with. It was like making his mother sit on the floor while he sat in a chair or something. It wasn't like there was nowhere else for the blond to sit. So the mad scientist motioned for Ron to sit next to him on the bed.

The young man sniffled a few times, head tilted in confusion before he seemed to catch on. He hopped off of the floor and flopped carelessly a few inches from Drakken.

It was quiet for a minute beyond them both trying to get their emotions back under control.

Drakken scrambled a bit in his head, trying to regrasp all the points he had planned to make to Ron. Everything in his life that would push him away from the horrible life he knew. Slowly the pieces came back to him.

Right. His 'friends'. Drakken had to show Ron the truth.

Leadingly the blue man murmured while he settled a hand on Ron's shoulder, "Yes, we are the same. Abused, shamed, mocked… All alone, with no one to depend on. To trust with our problems, who the real us is…"

"All… Alone…?" Ron processed that for a moment, then recoiled away from Drakken and yelped, wiping at his eyes, "Y-.. you're wrong! I'm not, not all alone! I have KP, and Monique, and Felix…"

"Ah yes. I saw you and your 'friends'," Drakken said with a self-indulgent chuckle, now wiping the last streaks of tears from his face. "Tell me, those Monique and Felix people… Were they your friends first, or were they Kimberly's?"

"I, ah…" Ron thought for a second. "Well, Monique was KP's friend first, then we started talking about wrestling… And Felix? Uhm, I think we all became friends at the same time?"

"And are they anything more than that superficial tripe that I saw in the school hallways? Brief conversations on 'Zombie Madness'?" Drakken resisted chuckling, knowing the answer.

The blond cringed at that. "Well, I mean, first it's Zombie Mayhem… And B, that's what friends do. Hang out and stuff?"

"Can you actually talk with them about your problems?" Drakken pressed. He knew, _knew_ that it was all a face. Those two, Monique and Felix… There was no way they were actually 'friends'. No one was friends with the kind that Drakken and Ron were. They probably only tolerated him because of Kimberly Anne.

"I, I haven't really tried…" Ron looked away, eyes squinting.

"So they're more _acquaintances _than _friends_," he said pointedly. "Friends you can depend on to know your problems and help you through them. And we both know that neither of us have people in our lives that would do that!"

"I bet if I tried they would listen," Ron said uncertainly.

"Would they _care_ enough to do anything about it? Are they acquaintances that would even bother to stay in touch with you after your confinement in high school is over? Or are you just the temporary lackwit that they use to entertain themselves?"

"I, uhm… Felix maybe?" The blond swallowed dramatically. "I mean, we play video games together."

"Pfffft!" Drakken waved his hand dismissively in the air. "You and I _both_ know that boy is going to find new people to hang out with in whatever super college he goes to. Why would he keep wasting the effort on a loser like you?"

Ron cringed.

"You simply need to _accept_ that no one knows, and no one cares, about us," Drakken said simply, quietly, trying not to let the sadness swallow him again.

Ron froze, then jerked upright as a thought apparently occurred to him. "You're forgetting about KP! Kim and I've best friends forever! I can trust her with anything! And she _totally_ cares about me!"

"Oh?" Drakken purred, suddenly feeling like a cat playing with an unknowing mouse. "So she knows about the bullies? And the mistreatment by your peers? And she does _nothing_ about it? She's at the top of the high school food chain…" He put a finger to his chin in mock thought. "You would think an influencer like her would be able to do _something _to help out her 'best friend forever'."

"She's busy!" Ron defended. "I don't want to bug her about stuff like this."

"And…" he paused for dramatic effect "...I noticed that you two never seem to talk about you. It's all her, her, her."

"She's _busy_," the blond repeated. "KP has _way_ more going on than I do."

"Still, a good friend should at least offer to listen," Drakken said sneakily.

"How would you know? You don't _have_ any friends!" Ron burst out, exasperated.

The evil genius flinched at that.

"Erm…" The younger man's eyes widened in surprise. Then, cringing, he said, "Sorry, didn't mean-.."

"I read a lot," Drakken growled. It was true. He _did_ read a lot about friendships. It gave him a shadow of a feeling of belonging. It was more than he'd ever had before, the closest being his posse from college. He shook his head, then grumbled, "It's not like I've ever had the chance to have one. I would've taken it if I could've!"

There was a strange awkward pause from the blond. Then he said something that took Drakken completely off-guard:

"I'll be your friend."

The blue man did a double-take at Ron, then narrowed his eyes. Great. Even when they were the same Drakken was the butt of the joke! Offering to be his friend…

...but the look on Ron's face was… Honest. Open. Almost excited. Bright-eyed, the blond said, "Yeah! We can totes be friends! Alone together sorta thing. After all, you aren't alone if there's someone else there with you!" He then scratched his head and amended, "Well, alone on _your_ part. Even if you're right about Felix and Monique - which I'm not saying you are! - I still got KP by my side." Ron reversed things and flopped a hand onto Drakken's shoulder. "You don't have to be alone anymore. I'll be here for you! Us losers gotta stick together."

Drakken's throat felt tight. Strange. Why was he reacting like this? He could fake cry on command, but this was entirely unintentional. It was slightly aggravating; he was bombastic in his expressions, but he could control himself fairly well beyond his temper.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he couldn't keep the strangled, "For realsies?" from escaping his mouth.

"Totally!"

A bright smile came to Drakken's face, and he let himself sniffle a few times. This was… He'd been planning to lure the sidekick to his side with spite, but actually build a friendship? Completely unexpected!

"Hey, uh, now that we've talked and made friends and stuff… Do you mind letting my buddy out of this cage?" Ron asked, rapping a knuckle against the top. Interestingly to Drakken, the little naked weasel had simply stood there, tapping its foot impatiently instead of mindlessly howling and chewing at the bars.

"Yes! Of course!" Drakken fumbled around in his various pockets, searching several before he finally found the right key. The key was handed over with no fanfare. As the blond happily turned to let his pet out of the cage, Drakken resisted chuckling. He _could_ have yanked Ron's chain and given him the wrong key so he could stand and laugh as the lock failed to open, but he wanted to try and be a good friend. Good friends don't normally do that, unless they're 'pranksters'. The blue man wasn't sure _what _kind of friends they would be.

...it would be nice to find out.

"Aaaaaand there you are!" Ron held out his hand to the open cage door. The weasel scurried out, up the blond's arm, and across his shoulders before affectionately rubbing its head against the side of Ron's face.

"What do we do now?" Drakken asked, a little lost. As he'd never really had a friend, he was at a bit of a loss on what to do. There was 'hanging out' in which they could do a variety of things such as watch movies, 'go on an adventure' which tended to involve adrenaline, 'pig out' which meant going out to eat something…

"We-.. ...ah… Hm…" Ron cupped his chin with a hand. "Give me a minute."

Drakken felt a little put out. He'd been trying to sway the blond to his side, but… Things felt too emotionally raw to do that kind of work. And if his previous notes on Ron's lack of friends didn't do it…

It was okay. It was painfully obvious to the mad genius that Kimberly Anne was tiring of her personal clown. Once his distraction plan, whatever it would be, went into motion, it was only a question of _when_ she would dispose of Ron. Odds are she would probably do that 'ghosting' thing he'd heard about. Completely lock him out of her life.

It would hurt. Drakken has never felt that particular pain, but he was sure it would be excruciating. He felt a slight pang in his chest for Ron. He didn't deserve it.

...but he wouldn't listen. It would have to be a lesson the blond would learn the hard way.

The entire time Ron had been thinking, as had his bald weasel. Apparently trying to pick a new friend activity was hard. Drakken wouldn't know.

Then the younger man snapped his fingers. "I know!" Excitedly he turned to Drakken and asked, "Do you have any gaming systems? Like, maybe Zombie Mayhem?"

It was the blue man's turn to think. Gaming system… Thinking out loud, he said, "I don't have one in my room, and I _know_ Shego doesn't have one… Oh!" He straightened up. "I know! There's one in the break room! Helps raise morale."

"Booyah!" Ron raised his hand and waved it around. Drakken blinked, confused, before he realized he was supposed to give the blond a high-five. When was the last time anyone initiated a high-five with him? He couldn't remember.

Happily, he slapped the younger man's hand.

Ron cringed as he grabbed his wrist and shook it a few times. "A liiiiiittle too enthusiastic."

"Erm…" Drakken felt like he should apologize. For some reason that was unknown to him, he didn't. Instead, he said as he stood from the bed, "Well, we can go whenever. I give pretty much everyone Saturdays off so they can watch morning cartoons, so we have free run of the place."

"Being a boss must be pretty hard," Ron noted as he, too, stood up. "Managing all those people, and the budget, and the sky-high insurance because of how often your lairs blow up…"

"You have _no idea_," Drakken said flatly, trying to keep his annoyance at the blond's part in said explosions from rearing its head and ruining the mood.

"Oh, this is gonna be _awesome_! We can raid the fridge and set up snackage while we slay some zombies!" Ron's enthusiasm was infectious. Drakken couldn't help the delighted chuckle from escaping his lips.

Deciding that letting the blond think on it too much would be a bad idea, he redirected, "So, this Zombie Madness game…"

"Uh, Zombie _Mayhem_," Ron corrected snottily as the door opened for them.

Drakken rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, this game. Is it online at all? Are we going to be harassed by ne'er-do-wells who never shower?"

His new friend chuckled. "Nooooo way. It's an IRL multiplayer. Up to four players!" The door shut behind them as he conspiratorially whispered, "It's pretty great, but _cheat codes_ make it a lot easier…"

_Swoosh_!


	3. Chapter 3

Ron felt like the most awesome person in the world as he walked through the doors of Bueno Nacho. In fact, he was so happy he totally had to whistle his joy!

He'd made a new friend! Sure, it was a crazed megalomaniac. And sure, they were normally enemies. But the blond was certain that stuff wouldn't get in the way of their friendship. In fact, he'd been so happy he'd barely even registered the extra homework and bullies today!

KP had noticed how excited he was. Ron totally wanted to share! ...but Drakken had made him promise not to tell her. Said something about a 'bro code', whatever that meant.

And… And Ron didn't think she would understand. Having someone that _knew_ you like that. On that same level.

He wished Kim was that person.

But! That would be later. When him 'n' Kim talked after this first friend meeting.

Speaking of...

Ron had been so busy personally congratulating himself that he forgot to even look at where his friend might even be.

It was only a few seconds of head-turning searching that he saw him. There was Felix. Chowing down on some nachos without a care in the world, waiting for Ron to show up.

Ron gulped.

Here it was. He'd asked Felix to meet him so he could… Could see if they were actually friends. Drakken's words were like niggling little worms in Ron's brain. It felt like there was some truth to it. Sharing your problems with them.

Ron wasn't good at expressing when he was upset. He didn't like worrying people, or upsetting them in turn. It was just _easier_ when he was a goofball. A clown, like Drakken had said. It made everyone else happier. No one worried about him. He was _Ron_, after all.

But… But it would be nice. Expressing himself beyond what he felt like he should. Ron struggled even in front of Rufus. He felt like he _couldn't _be sad. Not like how he really felt.

With hope filling his gut along with nervous butterflies, Ron went to join his friend at the booth.

Felix perked up in his chair as his friend settled into the booth, unhunching himself from around his nachos. "Heya Ron! Good to hang out."

Ron chuckled, hoping his voice didn't betray his real emotions. "Yeah. I know you're normally busy and all, but I, uhm, really wanted to talk with you."

The disabled boy shoved another handful of nachos into his mouth. Voice muffled and thick from the food, he said, "Yeah, I got that from what you were mumbling at school." He swallowed heavily, coughed, then asked, "Something about a serious discussion?"

"Yeah…" Ron was fighting with himself to not put on his normal goofy facade. He wanted to be serious! With big words and everything! Even then, he couldn't keep a crooked smile from forcing itself onto his face. Embarrassed now, he self-consciously scratched the back of his head. "It's serious to me, at least. Just need to talk about stuff."

Felix chuckled a little. "Is the Ron-man going to start being emotional or something?" He elbowed Ron good naturedly. "Start crying to me about something?"

This time Ron let the goofball mask shine as he mentally reeled from what Felix said. "What? Me? Cry? No way!" A fake laugh preceded his exclamation, "I'm the Ronster! Totally immune to the worries of normal men."

"Must be nice." Felix picked a couple of chips up and chewed on them as he thought. "I'm kinda jealous of your lassiez faire attitude. Floating through life without a care in the world."

"Not a single one," Ron automatically agreed as he tried to gather himself.

Okay. So. He couldn't confess his problems to Felix. That… Sucked. But! That was only part of it! Yeah! Just because they were casual buds didn't mean it was a waste! As long as they stayed buddies it would be fine!

"But if _that's _the case, then what serious discussion did you want to have?" Felix pondered, mock scratching his chin in thought.

Ron decided to just go for it. "I was thinking about, uh, college."

Felix blinked a few times. "Didn't expect to hear that."

"Yeah, not really a 'Ron' thing," he replied, keeping the same boisterous tone he had before.

"Sooooo…" The brunette cupped his chin in a hand. "What about college has you all worried?"

Oh boy. Here it was.

Ron cringed slightly as he mumbled, "Well, I was thinking about how I'll probably go to a normal college in Lowerton or something, while you went to some super college somewhere…"

"I _am_ in the running for class valedictorian," Felix proclaimed proudly.

"Right… Just…" Ron cleared his throat, wishing he'd gotten some snackage to distract himself from the nerves. "...I was thinking about… _Us_."

"Us?" The other boy tilted his head.

"Y'know, our friendship." The blond started distracting himself by picking at the table. "You'll probably be way far away, mingling with all the bigwigs while I cruise on through a two year college…" He couldn't help looking up at his friend, doe-eyed. "What'll happen with our friendship?"

"What did I say about being sappy?" Felix laughed, lightly socking Ron in the arm. A shot of panic flitted through the blond, but before he could react and deny he was cut off. "I kinda get where you're coming from. My mom and I actually talked about this last month, in fact! The future is kinda scary like that. Things changing, people moving on…

"When we talked, my mom pointed out that high school is just one step. People… They change. Lose touch with each other. Develop different interests. It's the nature of, well, growing up. Not everything can stay the same." Felix tossed another chip into his mouth, chewing it quickly before continuing. "We're still pretty immature when you think about it. Haven't really hit the 'real world'.

"There's a pretty good chance we'll drift apart. No point in denying it. We _will_ go in different directions. But that's nothing to be upset about! We're friends now. Why not enjoy it while we can? And even if we do drift apart, we'll still have our memories. All the fun times we've had together.

"After all…" a bright cheery smile crossed Felix's face "...we'll always have Zombie Mayhem."

Ron was struggling not to hyperventilate. This was not what he'd wanted to hear.

He'd been expecting something… Something _more_. Nothing Felix had said...

He'd been hoping for someone to talk to about his problems.

He'd been hoping for reassurance on their friendship.

He'd been hoping for… For confirmation that they would be friends forever.

As Ron gave Felix a brilliant smile of his own with an agreeing nod, only one thing stuck in his mind.

Drakken was _right_.

* * *

**A/N:** Short but sucky. Poor Ron...


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of their hang-out session was a blur. At some point he got some snackage as Rufus was laying in an empty tray, belly full of cheese and chips. Meaningless discussions that barely registered with Ron. Zombie Mayhem, upcoming test that Ron hadn't studied for, basic high school gossip… Nothing that made Ron feel like they were real solid friends.

In no time flat Felix had to go. Had plans to help his mom cook for a fundraiser. Ron kept his goofy smile up, making sure to convince the other boy that everything was fine. It was a good thing Felix was leaving; it was the same time that Ron had asked KP to meet up with him.

In fact, she walked through the door just as Felix had reached for the handle with his robot arm. Her eyes were bright and cheerful as always, making Ron feel the ever-present need to be Okay for her.

She was the biggest, best thing in his life. Made everything manageable. Their friendship was what got him through most days. She didn't need the added stress of him bugging her about stuff that he should be able to deal with on his own.

He watched his two friends chat for a few moments. Both were happily recounting something or another.

...were they good friends? Did they vent to each other like Ron wished he could? Probably not. It was probably just as shallow as Ron and Felix's friendship. After all, if Kim needed to talk about her problems Ron was the one she would go to.

"Bye Felix!" KP waved behind her as the brunette wheeled himself out the door, her walking up to the table without a worry in the world. Her head shook as she sat down in the booth. "He's pretty determined to beat me as class valedictorian, isn't he?"

Ron sat up straight in attention as he processed what his best friend had said. "Oh! Yeah, he mentioned that when we were hanging out." He gave his regular Ron smile. "He's pretty sure he'll win!"

Kim sighed, idly taking one of the few remaining chips in the nacho pile and spinning it in place. "Yeah, well, he _might_ if Drakken keeps pumping out plots like he does. He's been kinda quiet lately, but that tends to mean he'll have a bunch at once. Then you can say 'goodbye' to my study time!"

_Drakken_.

Ron gulped. He… He'd promised Drakken he wouldn't bring up them becoming friends. Things would be complicated, Kim wouldn't understand…

"What were you two talking about?" she asked curiously, looking up at him. "Felix mentioned something about college?"

That made him remember why he asked her to hang out. Finding out if their friendship-..

Nope! Nuh-uh! He couldn't do it!

Not because he didn't want to know. He did! Really bad!

But...

He wouldn't be able to take it if KP…

So instead Ron slapped on his classic chagrined smile and said, "We were just talking about the future. It being all wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey."

"Right…" Kim shook her head in her normal exasperated fondness and commented, "Didn't exactly expect you of all people to bring it up."

Redirect, redirect…!

"Kinda ran out of stuff to talk about," Ron said with a shrug.

KP stared at him for a moment before she noted, "That happens sometimes, even with the best of friends."

That made the blond's stomach clench. "Best of friends… Right…"

"Anyway…" Kim took the chip she'd been playing with and took a dainty bite out of it. Chewing for a few moments, she then said, "So the dance decorations are looking pretty spankin'..."

* * *

Ron sat quietly in the brush. He looked this way and that, and all around him, waiting for his prey.

...there!

Ron saw them! Slowly, cautiously making his way across the valley. They were completely oblivious to the blond as they traveled through the terrain.

"Have you found anyone yet?" Drakken asked, him having positioned himself a quarter mile away behind some hills.

"There's one in the valley thing, crossing."

Drakken hummed. "I'll reposition as back-up."

"Don't worry. The Ronman's got 'em," he murmured, aiming his weapon for a clean shot at their body. "Just gotta get this lined u-.."

A fireball and the sound of an explosion cut him off. To his complete shock, he found himself in a twisted burning pile of wreckage that was once his tank.

"I'm down!" Ron shouted, dramatically slamming a fist against his desk as his other hand moved the camera, trying to find where whoever had shot him was. To his frustration when he finally found them, they had managed to position themselves between a break in two plateaus and snipe him from there. Then he realized...

"The one in the valley's a distraction!" he yelled into his mic. "Don't-.."

The sound of another explosion ripped through his headset. Just as a frustrated growl left his teammate, the screen flashed 'Game Over' as the chat window had a couple of flashes of 'gg' from the other team.

"Bah!" Ron heard Drakken throwing something on his end. "Those wretches! Sniping us like that!"

"I know, right! So bogus!" Ron tapped at his keyboard a few times, navigating back to the main screen. "It stinks that Rufus got taken out right away in that kamikaze attack."

"Yeah!" his buddy grumbled from his own station, tapping frustrated claws against the laptop.

"Y'know, Drakken, I gotta admit that Globe of Armaments is actually pretty fun!" the sidekick said with some mirth.

"Of _course_ it is! I helped pay for its development, after all," the blue man grumbled over the set.

"Whoa! Really?" Ron was more than a little surprised.

"Yes! I helped develop the combat system," Drakken preened. "What, did you think I spent all my ill-gotten gains and time on world conquest? Even us villains have hobbies!"

"Huh." Actually, Ron _did_ think that Drakken only lived for conquering the world. But now that he thought about it, it sounded like the dumbest thing ever.

"So then…" Drakken paused, clearly thinking something over. Then, slowly and skeptically, he said, "...you were going to prove you have a 'genuine' friendship with that Felix boy, yes? How did _that_ go?"

Ron's eyes widened and a squeak escaped his lips.

"That bad? Must've hurt." Drakken didn't sound sorry at all. His words had more of a know-it-all tone.

"Yeah, well, I still have KP!" Ron proclaimed defensively.

"I'll be ready and waiting to say 'I told you so' when you finally realize that so-called 'friendship' is just as shallow as Kimberly Anne is!" the blue man proclaimed. Ron could just _see_ him raising a finger in the air.

"That totes won't happen," the blond said with a ton of assurance. "We're _best _friends. Just 'cause I didn't ask her about it doesn't mean that I'm not right." He thought over his words. "...you got what I'm saying, right?"

"Hmph." There was a strange clicking noise from Drakken's end. "I don't understand why you put up with all that."

"Eh?" Ron scratched his head. "Whadduya mean by that?"

"Have you ever thought of putting all that - high school, uncaring family, pathetic friends - behind you?" There was definitely more than a little bit of eagerness in Drakken's voice. "Start a new life?"

"What, like become a hobo?" The image of Ron in tattered rags with a can full of change briefly crossed his mind.

"What?! No!" Ron could hear the facepalm over the connection. "I meant more along the lines of being less law-abiding."

Something clicked in Ron's head. "Dude, are you trying to convince me to drop out and become a villain?"

"Not _necessarily_," the other man said. "You could get a GED!"

"_So_ not cool!" Ron grumbled.

"Have you ever thought about it? Really considered it? You were a rather effective villain when we were attitudinated…" Drakken said leadingly.

"Uh, yeah, no." Ron shook his head even though the megalomaniac couldn't see it. "I could _never_ do that to KP."

"Oh? So you _have_ thought about it?" The amused glee in his voice was unmissable.

"Well, I mean…" The thing was that he _had_ thought about it a few times. When he'd been Zorpox he had showed the bullies who was boss. He had been in charge. Smart. Unstoppable.

...but then he would think on Kim seeing him like that and it would all crash down.

"I couldn't do that to KP," Ron said more firmly.

There was vague grumbling on Drakken's end before he relented, "Fine, stick with the know-it-all cheerleader. But… Well, _when_ she lets you down as a friend, the offer to join me will still be on the table."

"Not cool!" Rufus chittered into the mic.

"How can you understand what it says?" Drakken said, exasperated. "I can't figure out _anything _from its dribbling chatter!"

"It takes time and some bon-diggity skill," the blond noted. "Even KP misses stuff sometimes."

"Hm. Oh well." An alert popped up on Ron's screen saying that Drakken had logged out of the game.

"Dude, you going to bed?" Ron checked his clock. He wasn't the best with timezones, but he was pretty sure it was still light in the Caribbean.

"No! I'm going to go do work," Drakken grumbled, clearly annoyed at Ron's rejection.

"When do you think we could play again?" the sidekick asked. He was trying to not sound too excited; with Drakken's whatever-he-wanted schedule, Ron could hang out with a friend pretty much whenever!

"I suppose we could play more this weekend… Though don't you want to go to that dance thing they're having?"

"I…" Ron's stomach sunk as he admitted, "I don't have anyone to go with."

"What, will they throw you out if you go alone?" Drakken asked. He then said after a pause, "I literally have no idea; never went to any of my school dances."

"Well, no… Just…" Ron couldn't keep the dismay out of his voice as he said, "I just, I don't want to go by myself. It tanks!"

"Hmm. Being by yourself when you're like us is no good," the villain agreed. "I suppose Kimberly Anne couldn't give you a hook-up?"

Ugh! Another dig at Kim! Didn't he give up?

"KP is _busy_. She doesn't have time to manage my love life!" Ron complained. Then he blurted, "Except-.." before he could stop himself as he remembered her going alone.

"Except…?" Drakken sounded like he wasn't going to let it go.

"She doesn't have a date and she didn't want to go with me, okay?" Ron grumbled.

"Oh yes, that's _such_ a good friend," the blue man drawled sarcastically.

"She comes through when it's important! And she probably didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea," he defended.

"Oh yes, I suppose it would irreparably damage her reputation if the trace of a rumor of you two being involved got out," Drakken needled.

That hurt. Especially since a part of Ron believed it was true.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll figure out something or another," Ron mumbled, logging out of the game himself.

"I suppose I'll keep that slot on my calendar open for more Globe of Armaments," Drakken begrudgingly said.

"Okay then. Later?" Ron said, not managing to keep the hope out of his voice.

A short condescending laugh sounded over the line before Drakken confirmed, "Let's 'hang out' more later."

"Booyah!" Ron would've cheered more, but the line went dead and his computer alerted him that '1337drakmaster' had logged off.

The blond took his headset off and got up. He took the few steps over to his bed and flopped out.

Now he was thinking about the dance. He _desperately _wanted to go. _So_ bad. But at the same time, he could still remember how awkward and lonely the last dances he went to were.

"Rufus, bud, _you_ don't happen to know anyone that I could take with me to the dance, do you?" Ron begged his little mole rat friend.

Rufus shook his head and let out a sad sigh.

"Didn't think so."

Ron thought about it for a few minutes. There wasn't a single person in the school that was free save for KP. Everyone was taken. At this point he would take having a friend to go with! But Monique was going with one of the basketball guys, Felix was hanging with Zita at home for some reason, and KP… Well, she tended not to pay attention to him at school events.

...what about outside of school? He would never _ever_ take his parents… KP's parents would just be pathetic… Jim and Tim were too young… There wasn't really anyone el-..

Then a flash of inspiration hit.

That… That could _work_! It'd take some convincing, but…

Ron grabbed his phone and pulled up a specific number. He texted, 'i hv a ? 4 u…'

* * *

**A/N:** So, I was on a bit of a roll with this and got more done than I thought I would in a short amount of time. Hopefully it's entertaining still.


	5. Chapter 5

Ron couldn't keep a stupid excited grin off of his face. This was going to be great! He could totally go to the dance now! It was with Drakken, which would be a little weird considering how old he was, but hey! Not alone! That was all that mattered.

He'd initially tried texting up Larry to go with him, but he said he was going to be busy painting miniatures. At that point Ron had nearly given up, but a quick thought of playing a bit more Globe of Armaments without Drakken totally brain jolted him into thinking about taking the older man! It took a few rings and a bit of begging, but eventually the good ol' Stoppable charm won Drakken over.

Did Drakken know how to dance at all? Ron didn't really know how to dance himself beyond KP trying to describe 'freeflowing' and watching Ballroom with B-Actors a few times. Maybe they should practice it at some point before the dance? But no, there wasn't time…

His deep thinking saw him all the way to Kim's locker. KP was already starting to shut it, clearly done sorting through her take-home books. She looked at him for a second, then did a double-take.

"Uh, Ron?" She stared. "What in the world are you thinking about?"

He stopped for the moment, confused. "What're you talking about, Kim?"

The redhead blinked. "You had a really weird expression on your face. I have no idea what it was."

Weird expre-.. OH! His serious deep thinking face! He tried not to think too hard around KP, but apparently he'd messed up this time. Easily fixable!

He slapped on a classic Ron smile and said, "Just practicing for, uh, acting club!"

"There _is_ no acting club," Kim said in an obvious tone.

"They've got everybody fooled!" he claimed. "They're _that_ good at acting! You'll see; someday I'll be recruited!"

To his relief, KP shook her head fondly. She then leaned against the locker and asked, "So, what's the good news?"

Ron tilted his head. He hadn't said anything to anyone all day about anything! "Huh?"

"You're in a better mood than normal," she said, smirking. "Strolling around, humming to yourself with a huge smile on your face…"

That gave Ron a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest. Even when they barely talked she could read his mood! The most badical best friend ever!

"I have a date to the dance!" he cheered, giving a small fistpump of excitement.

Her eyebrow quirked all skeptic-like. "With _who_?"

Ron froze. His eyes darted around as he tried to think of something, anything, to distract from the question. Drakken has said he had an idea of how to keep KP from knowing he was there, but they had _not_ talked about a cover identity!

He perked up as a thought occurred to him. "Oh! Hey! Didja know that Brick and Bonnie broke up again?"

"_Ron_…" She peered closely at his face, which was starting to sweat profusely. "Who are you going to the dance with?"

"You, ah, wouldn't know them," Ron said, starting to hyperventilate. "I, I, ah, met them online."

"Online?" Kim's brow scrunched up. "You _know_ you shouldn't trust people online like that unless you actually know them!"

"I _do_ know them!" Ron blurted nervously. He scrambled to recover by quickly saying, "We, ah, met up! We met up last weekend! He's _totally _on the up-and-up!"

Kim got a weird expression on her face. "Ron, I don't think-.."

"Oh, yeah, uh, sorry KP, I gotta go!" He swiftly turned on his feet and started running for it. "Hafta practice dancing 'n' stuff for the dance!"

"But Ron-.."

"Can't hear you bye!" His legs pumped furiously as he ran like a death ray was following him. Out the door, down the street, all the way until he was halfway home.

He stopped abruptly. His hands found his way to his knees as he stood sucking in air. Rufus clambered out of his pocket and began fanning Ron's sweating face.

He groaned to himself as he caught his breath. This tanked! There was no way he could withstand a grilling from her. Him and Drakken had to think of a cover story! Something that would hold up to scrutiny.

Would Drakken be online right now? They hadn't planned to play anything that night, but this was an emergency! Drakken would _totally _make time for this!

Running from KP would only work for probably an hour or two. Ron knew her; she wouldn't let this go. Odds were that she would show up at his house demanding answers. Could he pretend to be sick? Could someone get sick so fast? Maybe he should eat some of the leftover fruitcake from Hanukkah. Make the sickness authentic.

Anyway, time to try and brainstorm with Drakken! He reached down for the key to his scooter when he realized it wasn't there. Feeling around, he then discovered it in his pocket. It wasn't until he looked around that he realized he'd totally forgotten his scooter at school.

Aw maaaaan!

* * *

The snow was light, and Kim found herself having to dig out of it every now and then while snowboarding the mountain. The avalanche had left a treacherous trail for her to follow. When she wasn't digging herself out of snow her mind returned to her exchange with Ron. He was going to take someone he had met online to the dance.

Who does that? She could count on _one_ hand all the people she would expect that from, and Ron wasn't one of them.

Not only that, there was something specific that gnawed at Kim's brain. Ron had said 'he'. Was it a mistake?

She took a swift turn around a downed tree, ducking under the snow-laden branches, before coming to a stop at the top of a slope. Her head twisted this way and that, eyes searching for specific landmarks. The mission summary had said the skiers would be around the bypass, but so far she hadn't seen anything.

Ugh! If Ron had come it would've been a lot faster. There hadn't really been time, though; practically the second he busted down the doors to the school running away was when they hit up her site for the emergency call. Trying to hunt him down would've taken too long, especially when he was clearly going to try and avoid her.

There was something _off_ about the way Ron avoided the topic of his date. She mused on what it could be as she decided to go down the steeper side of the mountain.

Was he embarrassed at his date?

...no. No, he wasn't embarrassed. Ron didn't get embarrassed. And he had been excited and happy all day before he talked with her about it.

What about Kim made him suddenly lose his chill? Did he not want Kim to find out until the dance? It might've been the whole 'guy' thing.

Kim was absolutely mystified. Ron. With another guy? Did that mean Ron liked guys? Ron had said 'he' at school, but she didn't actually think at that second...

That caused her insides to twist. She'd known the idea of them being together as a couple was a touchy long-shot, but the fact that she didn't even have a chance? What about Tara, and Amelia? Did Ron like both guys and girls? Or did he just realize he only liked guys?

...how did she not know any of this? Why didn't he tell her? Kim felt almost _betrayed _by Ron. Weren't they best friends?

No. That was-.. They _are_ best friends. He just probably got excited and forgot to tell her in the last few days about his plans. Typical Ron.

Suddenly movement caught her eye. The next minutes were spent in concentration as she made her way to the stranded skiers. The group, a couple of women and their kids, were still in good shape, if chilled.

As they waited for the search team to zoom in on them, Kim shook her head.

She should let it go. It would be fine! Just a one-off date. Ron wouldn't, couldn't be serious about someone like that, especially a guy.

...right?

* * *

"Are you ready?"

Ron gulped at the question. It had been asked with an edge of annoyance. It wasn't too surprising; they had been standing just outside the school entrance while Ron hyperventilated and sweated for a few minutes now. Drakken was completely ready to go. Ron, not so much.

"I, ah…" He swallowed more spit. "I'm just, well, nervous. Haven't been to a dance yet where everything went right."

"Hmph." Drakken crossed his arms. It just emphasized to Ron how _weird_ Drakken looked at the moment. If it weren't for the blue skin, Ron wouldn't even recognize him! And with the colored flashing lights? The older man had been right. His 'disguise' was badical!

...It did make Ron wonder why he didn't use this particular invention more. It seemed like it could make someone eternally young or something! Why shelve it?

"Did you just want to skip and go somewhere to eat? Or, oh!" Drakken elbowed him in the side, a gleeful smile on his face. "There's a special karaoke event going on! If we hurry we could catch it!"

Ron thought for a second. "...No. I, I _want_ to do this. Have an actual fun high school dance experience with someone I care about. It'll be a blast!" He started to really get into it. "We can dance, and drink punch, and hang out with Felix and Monique 'cause KP prefers to hang by herself..."

"Ah yes, you're 'friends'." Ron could _hear_ the finger quotes. "Would they even notice you being there?"

"Of course! Well, I mean," he scratched the back of his head, "I didn't really tell anyone about it because of the surprise and keeping KP from finding out it was you and stuff, but they knew I wanted to come!"

"It takes a special kind of desperate to want to take _me_ to a dance," Drakken drawled sarcastically.

"Alone sucks. And hey! You never went to any of your dances! Just think of this as a way to catch up on a missed experience."

The blue man looked entirely unconvinced. "You honestly think we'll have that much fun?"

"Definamundo!" Suddenly Ron was filled with excitement, the emotion completely rolling over his nerves. He grabbed Drakken's hand and began to walk into the building, dragging Drakken behind him. "C'mon! Let's get this party started!"

His nerves weren't _completely _gone. There was still the gnawing worry that it would all end up a mess. But…but it would be fine. He was going with Drakken, his new friend person! Showing him all the stuff at a dance _alone_ would be a blast! And introducing him to his friends and stuff? It would be wicked cool if all of his friends became friends!

Any which way he sliced it, Ron _knew_ the night would be one to remember.

* * *

**A/N:** The next chapter is gonna be big and nuts! It'll take me a while to write, but dang will it be crazy. Stay tuned~


	6. The Dance, Part 1

Steve Barkin sighed to himself as he collected another chunk of change from the punks going into the gymnasium for the dance.

It was disgraceful, in his opinion. Letting all these young people go and flaunt themselves on the floor. Gyrating and flailing their limbs in a poor attempt at dancing. Back in _his_ day, people actually danced. None of this 'free flow' business!

The teacher growled as he let Bonnie and her boy toy Brick into the gym. It was aggravating to Barkin, that Brick was finally passing all of his classes. At the rate he was going he might actually _graduate _that year! And _then_ who would their star player be?

"Heya Mr. B," Ron Stoppable said as he skipped up to his table. It was, unlike usual, a welcome interruption to the older man's thoughts. Goodness knew he didn't need to start having another flashback.

"Stoppable!" he boomed, standing from the table. To his surprise, the blond was dressed in decent clothing. A fully cleaned pair of slacks and a darker v-neck shirt. Ignoring that surprise, he decided to bring up the _other _reason he was taken off-guard, outright saying, "I'm surprised to see you here. Normally you're too busy being an antisocial _punk_ to come to a dance."

"That's because _this_ time I'm not alone!" the boy said proudly. He pulled someone by the shoulders and shoved them in front of Steve. "Say hello to my plus one!"

The older man's eyebrows shot straight for his hairline as he took in the person in front of him. They were a tall gangly-looking teenager with scruffy poorly-kept black hair and thick square-framed glasses. Dressed in some of the nerdiest clothing Barkin had ever seen. There was a literal pocket protector! That was all weird. The blue skin was even weirder. But the weirdest part—

"Ronald, you _do_ realize this is another male, right?" Steve asked skeptically, looking over the new boy's shoulder at the dorky blond.

"Of COURSE I'm male, you dolt!" the other teen growled. "What _else _would I be?"

Steve wondered for a moment if this was some kind of joke. But, considering it was Stoppable…

Just to affirm, he asked, "And this is your plus one?"

Ronald nodded his head enthusiastically. "Totally! We're gonna dance together and everything!"

Barkin sighed. Leave it to Stoppable to make coming out such an obvious big thing. Shaking his head, he pulled out the name tags. "So, boy, what's your name?"

"Boy?!" The dark-haired teen attempted to menacingly lean over the table, though he mostly just looked puffed up. "I'll have you know that I'm a full-grown ma—"

Stoppable pulled on the boy's arm and whispered something to him. The boy growled, but stepped back and grunted, "_Drew_."

The kid clearly didn't like his name. Shame; one should take pride in what your parents named you! Ungrateful in Steve's opinion. Good thing the boy—looked to maybe be a freshman in college—didn't go to Middleton High. He'd probably be as big of a headache as Stoppable was.

Steve carefully and neatly wrote the two punks their name tags. Then he held his hand out for the money.

The boy blinked. "What are you doing?"

"Here you go!" Ronald handed the vice-principal the money to enter the dance as he simultaneously grabbed the nametags. "For me and my buddy!"

"Hmph." Steve counted every last cent. Somehow the slacker managed to count out the money correctly. Surprising considering he couldn't do basic algebra. He nodded in acceptance and said, "Alright, Stoppable. Go on in with your date. Keep in mind: no hanky-panky or PDA! And no riff-raff behavior either! One wrong move and you're _out_! Got it?"

The blond nodded. "Got it, Mr. B!"

"P… DA…?" The boy seemed amazingly confused as Stoppable guided him into the gym.

"This is gonna be _epic_! This'll be so much fun we might _die_!" Ronald said loudly as they walked into the dance.

Steve stared after them before giving a heavy sigh. Adding Stoppable to the mix…this was going to be one of _those_ nights. He could feel it.

That boy was a basket of trouble.

—

Drakken winced as they entered the gymnasium, the flashing lights making his vision tilt for a moment. Shaking it off as he was dragged across the room, the blue man tried to take in as much as he could.

Looking around, it really just looked like a poorly-decorated, dimly lit gym. Nothing like he expected. There was an archway running above and across the entrance, the theme seeming to be spring if the flowers and bird designs meant anything. There were also fake plants hung along the folded-up bleachers, and a small stage was set up where a no-name DJ was mixing his deck or whatever it was called. On one side of the room refreshments such as punch and cookies were set up on tables decorated with more fake plants and a mix of yellow and green balloons, and in the middle of the room a few people were flopping around to the music.

Was that supposed to be dancing?! What kind of strangeness was _that_? Hadn't any of them taken ballroom dancing classes like he had as a young man, or watched Ballroom with B-Actors?

In the back, where a lot of people were and where Ron seemed to be dragging them, tables were set up. Besides tablecloths and flowery centerpieces, there really wasn't much there beyond a banner stating 'Springtime Dance'. Drakken could have sworn Kimberly spent a good chunk of over a week on these dance decorations. They really took that long to come up with _this_? He expected better of his perfectionist arch-foe.

Drakken frowned as the two of them neared the tables. He could clearly see several students that he recognized from the surveillance footage. _Including _those bullies that guarded the halls in the corner, chatting away.

If he could slip away from Ron for a few minutes, get those two alone...ohhh, the vengeance would be so sweet…!

He had to catch himself again as he stumbled behind the blond.

"_Why_ are you rushing?" Drakken asked in almost a hiss, frustration eating at him.

"I want you to meet my friends. Then you guys can be friends! And we can have a mega-friend group!" Ron explained excitedly, speaking up enough to be heard over the music.

"Hmph." Drakken didn't understand why Ron continually referred to the group of Kimberly Anne's friends as his own. It should have been clear after that mess with the Felix boy that there was nothing concrete there. Nothing worth putting any effort into.

Ron probably thought Drakken was being pessimistic when, in reality, he was simply being a realist.

"Guys!" Ron was shouting, clearly trying to be heard over the terrible music. Somehow it worked as the small group of chattering teenagers broke up, two of them making to intercept Ron and Drakken.

The one of the two teenagers that were heading over was dressed as nicely as Ron. Basic slacks and a nicer kind of top. His wheelchair was, strangely, also decorated, with a bow tie hanging off one of the handles. The other one, a girl with a smile like Shego's, was annoyingly overdressed. Finicky accessories and a shiny kind of dress and everything. Drakken would have bet she was trying to show off. She had a cup of something in her hand. Hopefully some kind of punch like he'd heard about in all the media on high school dances. It could be fun to try it.

"Hey-o, buddarino!" the wheelchair-bound boy—Felix—said, winding around the generous space between tables to slug Ron in his side. He glanced over at Drakken and asked, "Don't tell me, let me guess...transfer student Barkin saddled you with?"

"Nope!" Ron pulled Drakken into a one-armed bear hug. "This is my plus one, Drew!"

The other one, the dark-skinned girl that Drakken was struggling not to sneer at...her eyebrows shot straight for her hairline. Felix's jaw was hanging loose for a few moments.

"Your...plus one…?" The girl looked like she was about to start blubbering nonsense.

"Monique, don't be so surprised!" Felix gave a forced laugh. "Ron's a 'never be normal' guy. Gotta expect the unexpected!" He tilted his head as he curiously asked, "Where did you two meet?"

"Globe of Armaments," Drakken answered automatically.

"Wow! Took a real risk there, Ron. Meeting up with an online friend?" Felix gave genuine chuckles this time.

"Hey! I trust Drew a bunch. It feels like I've known the guy for _years_," Ron fired back, squeezing Drakken a little more.

Ohhhh. Very smooth!

Though…

Irritation started flooding Drakken at the grip Ron had on him. He wasn't a very touchy-feely person as it was. His mother, Shego, and Ron were the only ones he was really comfortable letting into his personal bubble. Now, though, the blond was pushing what Drakken was okay with.

He squirmed around, grimacing, before he froze as the girl eyed him.

"Yes? What is it?" Drakken snapped, his irritation leaking through.

"Hm." She rapped a finger against her lips in thought, then shook her head. "I'm just a bit shook is all. Ron actually managed to keep it on the down-low. I'm surprised Kim didn't know either."

"She knew," Ron blabbered before covering his mouth. He then lowered his hand and gave the girl a sheepish grin.

Her demeanor had changed from the surprised but curious state to eye-narrowed glaring. "Oh, she did? And she didn't give me the scoop?!"

"I asked her not to!" Ron rushed. "I—I wanted this to be a surprise."

"Count it as a success," Felix noted with a finger gun.

"Oh! Hey, speaking of KP…" Ron made a show of looking around, finally letting Drakken out of his grip "...Where is she?"

"Huh." The girl blinked and looked around. "WTF. She was waiting for you to show up. Weird."

"Maybe she went to fix her make-up?" Felix suggested.

"Maybe…" Ron was clearly entirely unconvinced, unlike Drakken. Kimberly Anne was vain enough that he practically _expected _her to go girl it up in a bathroom somewhere.

"Hey, don't be like that! I'm sure she's around here somewhere," the far too optimistic boy said. "Are you really that concerned when you've got a date to entertain?"

Drakken froze slightly. Date? Who was a date? Drakken didn't remember Ron inviting anyone else along. The boy must have misunderstood something.

Ron didn't seem too concerned about the words as he mumbled, "Well, just, I wanted to at least say 'hi'..."

"Tell ya what." Felix slapped his knee. "Let's go look for her. She couldn't have gone _that_ far."

Drakken rolled his eyes. The boy made it seem like it would be a search of some kind. Ridiculous! The gym was empty enough that _everything _was visible beyond the awful strobes.

"Yeah!" Ron perked up some and shoved Drakken forward. "Monique! You can get to know Drew and become friends!"

This took the girl aback. "Whoa. Wait just a minute! Why are you—"

The protests came too late as Ron had already trounced off. Felix gave the girl a half-hearted shrug before he followed behind the blond.

It was as silent as the bothersome music allowed. The girl seemed rather frustrated at the turn of events. He didn't blame her; Drakken had expected he and Ron would get 'snackage' and dance a little. And now he was stuck in some kind of shared frustrated silence with Ron's supposed friend.

It annoyed Drakken. So he broke it.

"So, you're Monique." Strange. She seemed shorter in the video footage. Might be the pumps she was wearing for the dance.

"Yes." She shook her head. "Sorry about that. Just, that boy...he doesn't think sometimes."

Drakken growled at that. While he agreed to an extent, that wasn't something to blather about to practical strangers.

Shaking it off, he snootily said, "You're Ron's _friend_, right?"

"Yes…?" The teenage girl eyed him warily. As she should.

Time to peel back the facade. "How 'close' are you to Ron?"

Monique blinked a few times. "Uh...we're friends. _Just_ friends." The tone was, for some reason, rushed and reassuring. "That boy isn't my type."

"You seem to be pretty dismissive of your 'friend'," Drakken said with a slight snarl.

She seemed taken aback as she said, "No…? I mean, I'm just saying I wouldn't date him. He's all yours."

"Hmph!" He snorted. "He isn't good enough to date, eh? But you're fine stringing him along behind you as an accessory?"

"What in the world are you saying?" Her eyes narrowed.

"You're only friends with Ron out of convenience," Drakken straight-up said, his own eyes narrowing in response. "If Kimberly Anne wasn't in the picture, you wouldn't give a single hoot about him!"

"Hey! Who do you think you are with that crazy talk?!" Monique stood up taller, clearly trying to intimidate Drakken into dropping it.

As if!

"You're nothing but a third-rate Coco Banana rip-off!" Drakken sniped. "I can see right through you. You don't care about Ron at all, do you? Too busy keeping count on popularity points to really put effort into any _genuine_ friendship."

The cup in the girl's hand shattered into uneven jagged pieces, the remaining punch spilling out in large splashes all over the area around her. By some miracle, she remained clean. She tossed the cup and pointed a finger threateningly at Drakken. "You listen _here_, you grade-A dork! I—"

"What's going on?" Drakken and Monique both whipped their heads around to gape at a baffled, concerned Ron who, Drakken noted, was sans Kimberly Anne.

The dark-skinned girl was the first to speak up. "This guy is _too much_! He's awful! WWYT, inviting him?"

Drakken didn't have much time to figure out the acronym as Ron cried, "Hey! He's my friend. Yeah, he isn't the best person, and he makes mistakes, but that doesn't mean that he's a bad guy, even if he is."

Drakken raised his finger in protest, then paused. Was Ron trying to defend him, give him a backhanded compliment, or insult him? He couldn't tell.

Monique, on her part, looked offended. "Aren't I your friend too?"

Ron nervously chuckled and said, "You're _totally _my friend. But Dra—ew doesn't have friends like you do. We're in our own little friend group thing. And us bros gotta stick together."

Now a flash of hurt crossed her face. "...Fine. He's your 'bro'. GTK where your loyalties lie." She turned and began marching away towards the bigger crowd, calling over her shoulder, "TTYL."

"Uhm, bye?" The blond blinked a few times then, rubbing the back of his neck, said, "Yeah, I think I messed that up."

"Don't feel bad over that _girl_," Drakken said, patting Ron on the shoulder. "She isn't worth your time."

"Dude, she's still my friend, no matter how much of a weak link it is," Ron said simply. "I'll have to figure out what I did wrong and apologize for it."

"_You _didn't do _anything _wrong," Drakken emphasized. "She's just bent on ruining our night because you had the gall to bring someone to the dance."

The younger man looked unconvinced. "Maybe? I dunno. Not the best with girls."

"Neither am I," the blue man admitted reluctantly. The two of them stood there, clearly having approached a gap in topics.

Then Drakken paid some attention to the music and had a _brilliant _idea.

"Let's dance!" he said excitedly as he suddenly grabbed Ron and began to drag him out to the meager dance floor.

"Wha—Hey! I—" The blond cut himself off as he stumbled behind Drakken, the pace so frantic that he barely kept up.

It only took a few seconds before the two of them were on the dance floor together. The others on the floor moved over and away from the two men. It was probably because of them sensing and being intimidated by the epic skill that was about to be unleashed.

Drakken abruptly stopped in the middle, leading Ron to crash into his back. He withstood it, already tense with excitement. Eyes flashing, he turned to Ron and said, "Listen to that beat! It's _perfect_ for the foxtrot!"

"Foxtrot? Like hunting foxes? Isn't that a British thing?" the blond asked, scratching his head.

"What? No!" Drakken let go of Ron's hand and pantomimed the basic first steps. "Dancing!"

"OH! It's a dance thing! Like the Macarena!"

Drakken's eye twitched at the awful comparison. He weighed arguing with Ron about it, but decided to, instead, simply begin to dance. As he swept Ron up, he commanded, "Follow my lead!"

And off they went.

—

Kim stood in the girl's locker room halfway across the school and stared at herself in the mirror. It wasn't out of concern for her appearance. She was perfectly coiffed and dressed, her hair styled up in a loose tangle of uncharacteristic curls that took forever to do and a bright red spaghetti-strap dress clinging to her body in all the right ways. No, there wasn't an iota of concern for that.

The problem was _her_.

She'd been _waiting_ for Ron at the entrance of the gym so she could start vetting his date like a best friend should. But when she heard Barkin shout out Ron's name, knowing that there was someone else with her BFF...she ran.

And now here she was, trying to wrangle up a spine.

Again, she clenched the sink and repeated, "You can do this, Kim. It's no big. So what if Ron has a date? You've dated _plenty _of people and Ron only got his panties in a bunch over Josh for personal reasons. It's, it's ferociously unfair of you to get so out of whack over Ron coming to the dance with someone. Get over it and get back out there."

Yet even with the pep talk, she remained glued to the sink, her gaze drilling deep into herself. It was almost as if she _couldn't_. She couldn't let go, couldn't keep her cool.

It didn't make sense! She should be _happy_ for Ron! He was so happy, so excited. Nervous at her reaction for some reason, but it didn't seem to dampen his excitement.

Ron's story about his date stank of a cover-up. Besides a brief run-down of him being a guy from a local college, he was vague about it all. Ron had managed to keep things quiet in regards to everyone else. Kim kind of understood; people would've given him a hard time about bringing a guy to the dance, and Monique would've gone over the top trying to make Ron look good. Maybe even obnoxiously so. Yet even with those explanations, she smelled something rotten.

...No. No, it wasn't anything to do with him. Again, it was _her_.

Kim sighed as she leaned forward, resting her head against the mirror. It didn't make sense. Why was she being so, so _weird_ about this? They were best friends! Who supported each other through everything! No matter what! Yet this _one_ thing—Ron having a date to the dance—was messing her up. It made her stomach squirm in a weird way whenever she thought about it. It was a strange set of emotions: jealousy, envy, paranoia...nothing worthy of Kim Possible. And why now? Why _Ron_? What had changed since any of the _other_ times people were interested in her best friend?

She dug deep into herself, trying to find any hint of what it could possibly be. When it all started. These specific feelings related to her best friend.

Her eyes flashed wide open.

The moodulators. She'd felt like this when she'd been under its thrall, thinking of anyone else having Ron. And Yori. When that mess with Monkey Fist and DNAmy happened, Kim had bits of that same paranoia on Yori's intentions.

Her stomach twisted as she realized—

"I'm in love with Ron." Saying it out loud solidified it. It made sense, and felt right, and—

This was bad.

This was _really _bad.

How could this have happened?

She'd developed feelings for Ron. _Ron_, of all people? There were so many cuties out there, and people who had more drive, or better instincts, or, or…

...But they weren't Ron.

Kim growled as she thought on it all. How awful it was of her. How it ruined _everything_.

They were _friends_. The best of friends. Sure, she'd mused on what would and could happen if they got together in the past. Little passing thoughts, however, were _far_ different than the solid, unshakable reality of it being true.

And to realize it _now_, when he had a date with a _boy_ with practically zero chance of him considering her? The idea that Ron wouldn't be interested in her was both insulting and painful. In her musings, he'd always been interested. Always. She'd never even imagined that he might say no to her.

And now she was trapped in a reality where it was a very big possibility.

...Should she go for it? Tell him how she felt? Sweep him off his feet in a romantic display? It seemed like a good idea.

But then the fact that he had a date crashed the idea down. If Ron rejected her…

She would be a laughingstock.

Their friendship would be ruined.

Her heart would _never_ recover.

She had a major crush on her best friend forever and couldn't do anything about it.

—

**A/N:** Alrighty! The chapter was getting crazy long, so I'm breaking it up. Looks like it will be 3-4 chapters for the dance. Lots happening~

I'm a bit late on posting because I've gotten into these events on Archive of Our Own called 'exchanges'. I write something for someone, someone writes something for me. Already got a Rokken mpreg fic and a two-panel BetViv art piece. I'm in-between exchanges right now, so I took the opportunity to get this done.


	7. The Dance, Part 2

Ron was feeling kind of weird.

Yeah, they were doing exactly what he'd wanted and were totally tearing up the dance floor. Everyone was gaping at them and whispering. Normally Ron would feel strange about people so obviously talking about him. Maybe it wasn't feeling bad both because he wasn't alone and he couldn't quite tell why they were talking.

He could at least tell that wasn't what was making him feel weird. It wasn't even _close_.

No, the weirdness was _Drakken_.

Drakken had done exactly what Ron had needed and de-aged himself to around Ron's age. His laugh lines were gone, some odd remnants of baby fat clung to his face, hiding his sharp jawline, his hair was goopy moosed back in a weird oldies way…

It was..._wrong_. Drakken was his same old self, but Ron missed the 'real' him. This teen facade just didn't _work_ for him. It wasn't like he wasn't still cute—

Ron cut that weird thought off fast. Cute? Drakken wasn't cute. He was _old_. Old and grumpy and mean.

He looked at Drakken as they did a double-step to change direction, avoiding another couple that had decided to take to the dance floor as well. Ron _almost_ tripped into them. Almost. Drakken had caught him just as his legs were tripping up and managed to redirect his weight to the side.

Drakken looked like he was having the time of his life. His eyes were sparkling behind his glasses and a wide, careless smile was all over his face. He was mostly focused on dancing as he was the lead, but he occasionally glanced at Ron between steps. The pure joy radiating off of him made Ron feel pretty happy too. It was _awesome_ to see Drakken so happy! None of the sneering or bad guy stuff. None of the wheedling tone. Just, him. Him and his goofy happiness.

A warm feeling flushed through Ron as they stopped dancing to the music. The song had changed to something that was definitely not good with the foxtrot thing. Drakken stood there, blinking, obviously thinking, before growling.

"Hmph!" The normal glower came to his face. "This song's a dud. Nothing I know would work with it."

"It's fine!" Ron assured him, wrapping his arm around Drakken's neck and skipping him off the dance floor. "I'm a bit pooped from that dance we just did. A rest isn't a bad idea! Seriously!"

"Uuuuugh...don't say 'seriously'," Drakken groaned, wiping a hand over his face and glasses. He paused, then grumbled as he ripped the glasses off of his face and began hurriedly cleaning them on his shirt. Continuing, he muttered, "It makes me think of Eddie."

"Oh right! You two are cousins! Bet those family reunions are weird, huh?"

"Not really." Drakken wriggled free from Ron's grip. "He doesn't get invited much. He's the family black sheep."

"And you aren't?!" Baffled, Ron stuttered as they got to the bleachers to lean against, "But, but I thought the blue skin—"

"Appearances aren't everything, Ron," Drakken chastised. "I may look a bit odd, but my manners around my family are top-notch! My mother raised me to be better than _Eddie_."

Ron decided _not_ to bring up his previous scheme where Drakken worked and rocked out with Motor Ed. Instead, he decided to wonder on KP. It...it bothered him. That she wasn't there even after talking nonstop about the dance.

"Do you think Kim's avoiding me?" Ron asked out loud.

"Hm?" Drakken blinked, then asked, "Why would she be doing that? Jealous that she doesn't have your slavish devotion this time around?"

Ron let the Kim-centric barb slide. "I mean, I don't know." An idea popped into his head. "Maybe a guy came that she's interested in?"

"A guy? Like off the street?"

"No. Yes? Maybe?" Ron blew at the wisps of hair that flipped forward into his face. "She gets a bit obsessive about dating an' stuff sometimes."

"Oh? The rasp of interest in Drakken's voice made Ron feel weird. It wasn't _that_ interesting of a thing. Then again...feeling the old bit of betrayal stabbing his back, he said, "Did I ever tell you about the time I was locked in a janitor's closet for a weekend because Kim was busy dancing with her crush and she forgot about me?"

Drakken vacantly shook his head. "No." He looked intensely at Ron. "She gets so focused on boys that she ignores everything else?"

"Not so much ignores as distracted," Ron clarified. "She doesn't pay much attention to things she doesn't think are very important."

"Interesting…" Drakken murmured. "So, if, say, a new student caught her fancy…?"

"She'd be a lost cause time-wise," he replied. "Kim would be so busy with her new boyfriend that she would forget about most things. Like Kim Night."

"I suppose you've experienced it before?"

"Back when she was with _Mankey_," Ron snorted. "They spent a _lot _of Kim Nights together. Most other guys have been one-offs, but if Mankey is anything to go by, she tends to forget about her friends—like me—and dedicate her time to them."

"Good to know." The evil guy tone set alarm bells off in Ron's head. Before he could begin grilling Drakken on what was going on, Drakken's head suddenly snapped up. "Oh! Did you check out the newest update to Globe of Armaments?"

The sudden change of topic completely distracted Ron from his questions. Forgetting them as trivial, Ron said, "No…? I thought the next update wasn't for another week."

"Oh ho! They updated it early during a lull hour!" Drakken pulled out a small device that looked somewhat like Kim's Kimmunicator and punched a few buttons on the screen. Excitedly, he leaned against Ron as he chittered, "Look! They beefed up the armor on most of the models and cut the damage in half!"

As Drakken began to rattle off the different minutiae of the update, Ron was mostly distracted by how _close_ Drakken was. The dancing had gotten Ron's mind going to really weird places. Uncomfortable places. Places that he hadn't explored much in himself.

Ron glanced at Drakken's face. A terrifically bright smile greeted him. Drakken's eyes, to his sudden realization and surprise, were actually some kind of deep blue instead of the full-on black he'd always assumed they were. His breath wasn't the greatest, but it was nothing a good brushing couldn't fix. His teeth were in tip-top shape despite it. Drakken's ears stuck out a bit compared to most people. Ron wasn't really one to talk about that, though.

Drakken's features were kind of weird on their own. Mixed together, they were more interesting. It was nice to look at compared to most people. Nothing about Drakken was at all normal. Like Ron.

Ron's stomach twisted into knots as he thought on his thoughts. Why was he thinking about this stuff? It was just weird. Picking apart Drakken's appearance like he was actually thinking about how he looked. Like it mattered somehow.

Yet again, Ron looked at Drakken. At this point Drakken's voice had started to meld together into excited chatter. Seeing Drakken happy, honestly happy, was making Ron see him in a different light.

Why couldn't Ron make Drakken happy like this? He felt like a let-down. Like he wanted to _always_ make Drakken happy. Like it was _that_ important.

His guts froze as he once again considered his thoughts in an overall picture.

If Drakken were a girl, this would all be one big obvious thing.

Was this weird? What Ron was thinking and feeling? Was it _wrong_? Drakken was old! Old and mean and grumpy, just like he'd told himself before.

...But he was a good friend. Drakken understood Ron on a level that no one else did. He wasn't really ugly—he appealed well enough to Ron—and when he was happy Ron felt blubbering warmth for him. A longing to be the reason Drakken was happy.

Ron was very aware of what it all meant.

"Okay!" Ron burst free from Drakken's grasp and rushed out, "I'mgonnagetussomepunch!" before he ran for the refreshment table, not daring to look behind him.

—

Drakken boggled after Ron. He'd _just _gotten to the Juggernauts—Ron's favorite tank—when the blond had suddenly exclaimed about the punch and ran off. Strange. Drakken thought it would've been riveting, finding out about the buffs and debuffs.

Oh well. Drakken could fill Ron in on it later. Clearly thirst was clawing at Ron's throat.

Drakken was just repocketing his device when he saw out of the corner of his eye the bullies. The two hallway bullies were shepherding some poor boy with a backwards baseball cap and floofy red hair into the locker rooms.

Oh my! The perfect opportunity!

Drakken slunk on his tiptoes towards the locker room door. Looking around furtively, he determined the coast was clear as he slipped into the room.

"—owe us _now_!" The voice of the small bully was distinctive. Drakken could have recognized it even if he had an ear-splitting concussion.

"L—look, I gave Wedge the money last week!" That must have been the boy as Drakken knew Wedge to be the unfortunate name of the other bully.

"Well well well, what do you know! Another excuse!" There was a pause before a loud, theatric boom of "Wedge! Did you take any of this guy's money?" rang through the room.

"It wasn't enough," the guttural growl of the larger bully muttered.

"Hear that? You shorted us!" Drakken turned the corner just as the small bully—Biggs, ironically—pokes the kid hard in the chest. "You'll give us ours!"

Perfection!

"Oh, you'll get what's yours alright," Drakken said with as much of a villainous chuckle as he could manage in his teenage form.

The three children stared at Drakken, clearly confused.

"Heya Wedge, did we pick up a new client at some point this week?" Biggs asked as he eyed Drakken.

"We have one now," Wedge replied, turning his attention to the supervillain.

Drakken thumbed at the door. "Get out of here, kid who is so unimportant I don't know your name. I have business with these two bullies."

"Right." The redhead scurried out of the locker room, hand tight on his baseball cap.

It was quiet for a few moments after he'd left, like a showdown between two gunmen. Except there were three.

...What would it be called with a two-on-one gunfight? Drakken would have to look it up later.

Drakken decided to start it off. "So, you two are the bullies of D-hall."

"'Bullies' is such an ugly term!" Biggs said, waving his hand dismissively. "We prefer 'guardians'."

"Uh-huh." Drakken decided to cut straight to the point. "Stoppable."

"What about him?" Wedge said.

"You're going to leave him alone from now on."

The two kids laughed.

"And why would we do somethin' silly like that? Good ol' Ronnie boy is a good source of income!" Biggs chuckled.

Another great opening. Things were going so smoothly. It was like an angel of petty vengeance was on Drakken's shoulder!

"I have something that will make both of you change your minds," Drakken said, digging in his pocket for his handy little not-a-rip-off-of-Kimberly-Anne's-communicator.

"Really? Must be a pretty good bribe." The greed in Wedge's eyes was blatant.

Drakken was the one laughing now. Cheerily, he said, "Oh no. Not bribery. I was thinking more _blackmail_."

Biggs scoffed. "Yeah, right. Blackmail _us_? With what?"

Drakken pulled up the specific folder with the set of pictures that would let him win. "Oh, nothing much. Just _these_!"

Drakken held the device out in front of him, showing the bullies the screen loud and clear.

It was a slideshow. The two looked confused until they saw exactly what the pictures were.

Biggs in a tutu, pirouetting.

Wedge playing with a chihuahua with a bright pink bow.

Biggs cleaning up litter on the side of the road.

Wedge playing with a set of dolls in his bedroom, apparently having teatime.

Picture after picture were things that would dent or outright destroy their reputations as tough guys. It would out them as creampuffs. Ruin their lives. They would be laughingstocks.

Wedge lunged for the device. Drakken easily dodged, used to far more accurate and painful attacks from Shego when she lost her temper. He couldn't help but chortle at the pathetic attempt to stop him.

"Fat chance of you two losers taking me down," Drakken snickered. "Even if you did, I have these pictures backed up to my main hard drive. Destroying my creation would do nothing for you but make me want to destroy you _that much more_."

The two gulped. Sweating now, Biggs stammered, "Wh—What do you want from us?"

"Are you deaf? I _said_ I want you to leave Ron Stoppable alone!" Drakken barked as his temper flared. These two...with Drakken's luck, they would end up being a couple of his no-name henchmen!

"Just leave Ron alone? That's it?" Wedge looked skeptical while Biggs breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes. That's pretty much it. Though..." A thought occurred to Drakken. "If you want these pictures erased from the face of the Earth, you'll do what I say."

"Anything!" Wedge squeaked.

"I want you to protect Ron as best you can. I do understand that lackwits such as yourselves won't be able to do much, but even a little bit would help."

Biggs tensed at the 'lackwit' comment but otherwise neither said anything. They looked at each other before slumping their shoulders in defeat.

"Okay. You got us." The look on Biggs' face was simply _delicious_. "How long do we gotta keep it up for?"

"Oh, I would say until the end of junior year." By that point, Drakken's hold on the world should be complete. There would be no need for the two of them then.

This time Wedge was the one to look relieved. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"That should be a piece of cake!" Biggs said.

"Good. I'm so _glad_ you see things my way." Drakken put his doodad back into his pocket. "Now then, I must be off! Can't leave Ron waiting. Ta-ta! And remember: I'm _always _watching."

—

Ron took another deep, calming breath as he leaned against the table that held the refreshments.

It was fine. All of it was totally fine. It was small! Insignificant! Completely and utterly unworriable.

What was _wrong_ with him? Falling for Drakken? _Drakken_!? Yeah, he was cute, and smart, and a bright spot on a cloudy day—

Ron shook his head. _Not_ the direction he'd wanted to go. He was trying to pep talk himself _out_ of it! It was not what he wanted!

...Except it was. On some level, Ron wanted Drakken. Somehow. What in the world had changed? Was it seeing Drakken as a teenager? Was Ron hung up on the 'age' thing? Drakken WAS pretty old, but in some ways he was still around Ron's age. Emotionally stunted after years of abuse. Whereas Ron had KP, Drakken didn't have anyone.

It was only temporary. This whole 'crush' thing. Once Drakken was back to his old, _old_ self Ron's head would straighten back up. It was just confused by the whole deaging thing.

The feelings were...a surprise. Ron has felt inklings of this before with Amelia. But it was _more_. Was this how most people felt with crushes? No wonder Kim got so distracted!

Ron shook his head. It was totally not the time to get lost in thought. Drakken was waiting for Ron to get back with punch. Leaving Drakken alone in a place where no one liked him was not a good idea.

He had just ladled the second cup of punch into a glass when a snobbing shout of "Stoppable!" made him flinch.

Then, gingerly, he turned around.


	8. The Dance, Part 3

"Well well well...the loser actually decided to show his face. How interesting!" Bonnie was standing at the end of the concessions table flanked by some of the other cheerleaders.

"Uh, hi?" Ron wasn't really up for dealing with Bonnie at the moment. Not when he was having an existential crisis! Eyes darting to the side, he murmured, "Well, it was good seeing you, see you again later!"

"Hold up, Stoppable," Bonnie said, darting right into Ron's path. "I have an offer for you."

"An offer? For what?" Ron eyed her suspiciously. "I don't have any more money. I gave it all to Barkin."

Bonnie sighed and shook her head. "No, you doofus. I don't want you to buy something from me. I have a much _better_ offer." A smug smirk crossed her face as she continued, "Be my best friend."

Ron blinked several times. "What?"

"I want you to be my best friend." Bonnie stage-whispered to the cheerleaders behind her, "Gay besties are _so_ in."

He swallowed. "Gay? Who's gay?" A high-pitched laugh escaped his lips as he began hyperventilating.

"Don't give me that story, Stoppable." Bonnie thumbed towards where Ron knew Drakken was waiting for him. "You practically _screamed_ it by bringing that guy with you."

"I dunno, B," Hope said hesitantly. "He might be bi."

"Yeah, right. After he missed _all_ of T's hints? Like, no one is _that_ dense."

"The Ronman is that dense!" Ron squeaked.

"So you're claiming that even after all the obvious signs from Zita and T that you somehow didn't notice?" Bonnie laughed. "As _if_. Even _Brick_ would've noticed it all."

Ron swallowed as he tried to regain control of himself. He sputtered, "I, uhm, can't. Be your bestie. Because I'm KP's bestie." Building up the idea in his head, he noted, "I can't have two besties. Besties are limited to one person and one person only."

"Oh yes. This does explain why K sticks with you so much. For once she was ahead of the trend!" Bonnie leaned in. "Are you sure that you won't take my offer? If you were my best friend, I would treat you much better than K ever has."

"Kim treats me just fine!" Ron said defensively.

"Oh?" Bonnie's grin turned predatory. "From what I see, she's about ready to dump you."

A streak of insecurity and irritation hit Ron. Both from the bold claim and the fact that he'd been having the same worried thoughts ever since Drakken had been pointing it all out. He growled, "Listen, _B_. KP is my best friend _forever_. We're going to _be_ best friend for forever. End. Of Story."

The brunette shrugged. "Oh well. It was worth a shot. Just remember, it was _your_ choice."

Before Ron could ask what in the world that meant, Bonnie whistled. Suddenly, like they materialized out of nowhere, all of the captains of the various sports teams were _there_. He knew them all as being the boyfriends of all the cheerleaders present.

"What's wrong, Bonnie?" Brick sounded genuinely concerned.

"This _loser_ won't leave me alone," Bonnie said haughtily. "Get rid of him, if you would be a dear?"

"WHAT?!" Ron balked. "_I_ won't leave _you_ alone!?" The protest on the tip of his tongue died as he was surrounded by the very large, very buff jocks.

He swallowed. As he was picked up by the front of his shirt, Ron begged the universe for his best friend to save him.

* * *

Drakken couldn't help but to laugh to himself loudly as he returned to the spot against the bleachers. Those fools! As if he would give up prime blackmail material like that! Simpletons. Pure-blooded fools. He should de-age himself and gather material like that more often. It was rather fun to harass, embarrass, and plain old humiliate lessers like that. It was a bit of a taste of what Shego probably felt whenever she harassed Drakken.

If that was the case, then perhaps he shouldn't hold her sniping against her so much. It was a lot of fun.

He stopped and blinked before looking around theatrically.

Weird. Shouldn't Ron be back by now? Drakken had been expecting to have to come up with a reason that he'd wandered off.

A loud whistle caught his attention. Surprised that someone bothered to make noise above the terrible music, he looked over to where the sound had come from.

Drakken gaped a little at the sight of Ron surrounded by a _heap_ of neanderthalish jocks. What in the world did all of those boys _eat_ to get that big? Did they all pitch in together on molecular muscle enhancers? Were those even allowed in high school sports?

Whatever. It didn't matter. What _did_ matter was that one of them had grabbed Ron by his lapels and looked to be planning to put on some hurt.

Drakken frowned, then snarled. He wasn't about to let _that_ happen. Ron was his friend! His _best_ friend. His only friend. Drakken would prefer to take the punch in Ron's place. Not that he was going to let it get that far.

He stomped over, cutting through the dance floor and very intentionally shoving a couple apart as he went. Drakken shouted, "ExCUSE me!" just as the jock was preparing to throw Ron.

The jock paused, his meaty neck craning to look at Drakken in his dumb jock way. "Can I _help_ you, nerd? I'm in the middle of somethin'. If you want beaten up, you'll have to wait your turn."

"The only one that will be beaten up is you, numbskull," Drakken said with an evil chuckle.

"What was that?" The jock dropped Ron like a sack of potatoes and turned to Drakken. Like a single-minded entity, all the jocks did the same.

"Once I'm through with you, you'll wish you'd never laid eyes on Ron," the supervillain said as clearly and slowly as he could so they could understand his words.

That _clearly_ didn't sit well with any of them. They all surrounded Drakken like a school of sharks descending on prey. Such a shame for them that Drakken was a killer whale.

"Say that again," the jock in charge dared.

"You're going to regret ever tangling with me!" Drakken proclaimed, digging in his pockets for where he was certain he'd put his gravitomic raygun. One could never be underarmed for confronting high school ne'er-do-wells.

His hand closed over...leaves?

Drakken pulled out a handful of what looked like flowers. Crumpled in them was a note. Quickly he unfolded the note and stared at the words.

'For your hot date tonight. Flowers do better than weapons to impress. -Shego'

He'd told Shego that he was going out with a friend to a late night activity. Apparently she took it the wrong way. How in the world had she managed to pull _this_ off? He didn't even remember seeing her before he left!

Drakken swallowed as he looked up at the jocks that were taller than him by a few inches. Wincing a little, he muttered, "Well, uhm, hm. Any chance we could have a rain check?"

He got his reply in the form of being picked up and thrown at the concession table. The table folded under his weight and the force used to toss him as cookies went flying and the punch spilled sloppily all over Drakken. It was accentuated a moment later by the punch bowl itself landing on his head.

"Drakken!" Drakken heard Ron shout. Someone that was probably Ron helped him up.

As Drakken sat back up, tossing the punch bowl to the side with a growl, the jocks and the obvious cheerleaders, save for a concerned-looking blonde cheerleader, were all laughing. He shook Ron's attempt to help him up off, standing up on his own. Rage was beginning to seep into him at the throwback to his own high school days. Drakken was better than all of this! This is what he got for being soft and trying to play nice for Ron's sake!

"You talk big for a wimp," the jock taunted. The other jocks made faces at Ron and Drakken while the cheerleaders had another wave of titters amongst themselves.

Drakken wringed his shirt off on the floor. While he may be in his weaker college body, he was still enhanced with his various mutations. He could take a lot more punishment than any of these idiots could manage. The only issue was how he could deal any pain back?

He was ripped from his thoughts as a shout of "STOPPABLE!" ripped through the air followed by a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Mr. B!" Ron looked relieved.

"What did I tell you about causing trouble?" the large probably-principal grumbled loudly.

Drakken was absolutely baffled. What?

Ron protested, "But we didn't—"

"Don't try to pin this on anyone else! You and your partner in crime are covered in the evidence," the man said, clearly utterly convinced.

"That's because they _threw me_ into the table!" Drakken tossed in, wiping and flicking off more punch to highlight his point.

The man paused, then looked at the brunette cheerleader. "Is this true?"

"Like, not in the least. These losers just don't know how to dance," she replied in a snobby voice. Most of the rest of the groups of jocks and cheerleaders nodded in agreement, proving she was the alpha of the group.

"I knew you were lying," the probably-principal growled, gripping both Drakken and Ron's shoulders hard. "You two are nothing but troublemakers. I'm _not_ going to allow you to ruin everyone else's time!"

Ron stuttered, "But, but Mr. B—"

He was cut off by the intense dragging of the man leading the two out of the gym. Drakken glared backwards at the groups of popular people who were all laughing and jeering at them. The man didn't let them go until they were outside the school.

"Consider yourself banned from all extracurriculars for the rest of the year!" he barked. "No dances, no sporting events, no nothing!"

"Even prom?!" Ron exclaimed.

"_Especially_ prom!" He glared at Drakken. "I'd better not see you around here, either!"

Drakken opened his mouth, a retort on his lips when he caught the look on Ron's face out of the corner of his eye. The heartbreak on his face pulled at Drakken's chest for some reason. Probably indigestion.

"I got it, Mr. B," Ron muttered while Drakken was distracted taking in Ron's expression. "This kinda took the wind outta my sails anyway."

"Good." Giving the two of them one more evil eye, the man turned and marched back into the school.

Things were quiet for a minute. In the silence, Drakken was fuming.

Those children! Bratty little children! How _dare_ they treat himself and Ron like this?! Ohhhh, this wouldn't stand! This wouldn't stand at _all_.

"Hey." Drakken was torn from his brooding by the broken voice of his friend. His head snapped over to look at Ron. Again, the heartbreak was there. It was swiftly covered up by the fool's smile he always wore to keep his so-called 'friends' content. "That could've gone better, huh?"

"Very much so," he agreed, watching Ron's expression carefully.

"I'm glad Rufus wasn't here for that. That would've really upset my little buddy!" The blond looked Drakken over. "Man, they really covered you. At least you just have to use that Juvenation thing to change your clothes."

This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all.

Ron chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about that. This was kind of a bust. At least—"

Drakken set a hand on his friend's shoulder. He said, "Ron. Don't do this."

Ron stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"This act. I needle you about it, but you shouldn't cover it up. Especially not with me," Drakken said seriously. "We both know how you're actually feeling."

Faltering, Ron mumbled, "I, ah...need to go. I need to go and find KP."

"Find Kimberly Anne? _Really_? After that humiliation?!" Drakken looked Ron straight in the eye. "What can she do? She doesn't understand you! She doesn't understand you _at all_!" He snorted and growled, "Face it! She probably won't even care about this!"

"You're _wrong_!" Ron snapped, his facade falling away for another few moments. "KP cares about me! She'll be on my side for this. She's always had my back."

"I think it's the opposite. I think _you've_ always had _her_ back. You're just mistaking it."

Instead of answering his completely correct point, Ron stomped off towards what Drakken was pretty sure was the football field. Drakken watched him leave. It was a good thing he was leaving. Maybe even distracting Kimberly Anne.

Because Drakken wasn't done with these people in the school. Oh no. He wasn't done with them at all.


	9. The Dance, Finale

"Are you sure he's here?" Kim looked at her Kimmunicator at her tech guru. She was currently standing on the opposite side of the school, making her way towards the football field.

"Yeah." Wade lazily typed for a moment. "I thought you two were supposed to be at that dance?"

"Plans change," the redhead mumbled defensively. "What matters is that I need to talk to him. In private."

"I don't think you'll have a problem with that," Wade noted. "He's kinda hanging out in the middle of nowhere."

"Good." Kim gave her friend a half-hearted smile. "Thanks, Wade."

"No problem! Hope the talk you guys are gonna have will be good. Confessions are hard."

Kim ducked her head. "Yeah. Right. Confessions…"

"Later!" Wade vanished from the screen.

She waited a moment before taking a deep breath in. Releasing it slowly, she began walking towards where Wade had tracked Ron. It was times like this that she was glad that Ron was chipped. Ron had been upset when she and Wade finally fessed up last year, but in the end he understood. He always did.

It didn't take her long to get to the bleachers. When she got there, she found Ron sitting alone in the dark. There was something wrong with him. There was a downtrodden look on his face. Belatedly Kim realized he didn't have his date.

To her shame, her heart soared at the thought that Ron had been dumped. _Such_ an unworthy thought. It was also moot. Her decision was final. She couldn't be selfish.

Carefully she made her way up the bleachers to where he was sitting. When she realized he was lost in his own thoughts, she anxiously said, "Hey Ron."

He jumped at the words, his expression shifting to worried before a tired, hopeful smile appeared. "KP!" Ron straightened up on the bleachers. "Just the person I was hoping to see."

"I was looking for you too. Good thing you have the chip, huh?" Kim settled down next to him.

"Yuppareno!" Ron said, "There's somethin' we gotta talk about, KP."

"I have something I need to say first," Kim said, raising a hand to stop him from talking.

Ron looked at her, curious. "Okay…? I guess you can go first."

"Thanks."

Kim took another deep breath in. She had to do this. She _had_ to. Nothing was more important than their purely platonic friendship. Tainting it with her feelings was just..._wrong_. She had to say this to close that door and preserve what they had.

It wasn't like she didn't already have an idea for a talk like this. She'd come up with the skeleton of a script months ago. Ron's possessiveness whenever Kim got a boyfriend had spurred it into existence. Now she was just fleshing it out.

She steadied herself, closing her eyes briefly, before opening them and looking Ron dead in the eyes.

"Ron. We're friends, right?"

"The best of friends!" Ron exclaimed happily. "No one's closer than we are."

"Yeah…" She rubbed her arm and looked away for a moment. She could do this. It was important. Clearing her throat, she picked it back up. "When we were kids, it was just the two of us. Neither of us really fit into the moulds that existed. We were oddballs.

"But times...they change. Things changed. We're different people than we were before. We have...different...feelings than before about each other." Kim suddenly couldn't look at him anymore. She could feel her throat tightening, her confession on the tip of her tongue.

She couldn't do it. It wouldn't be fair to Ron, or their friendship.

Her tongue and lips were dry as she continued, "We're adventuring into a world that is unlike anything we've ever done before. We'll be going out and finding our own paths. We won't be walking the same path. I'm pretty sure of that."

"We'll always be tight. But we're not in pre-K anymore. It's time to grow up." She let out the rest of her breath and looked over to her best friend forever.

And was certain she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

The look on Ron's face that made her heart drop vanished almost as soon as she'd seen it. The horror and shock was swiftly replaced by embarrassment and understanding.

"Yeah, I think I get what you mean," Ron mumbled. "Things are getting kinda crazy out there. Big old world that we're gonna be going into soon. It'd be a bit of a reach to think we'd even end up at the same college. And, well, long distance stuff doesn't tend to work out so well."

Kim started relaxing. It seemed that her reaction to his reaction was, well, reactionary. He understood. And, more importantly, she had put that blockade in place. There was little way that she could ruin their friendship now. She was putting Ron at more of an arm's distance, but that was better than losing him completely.

"I'm glad you understand," Kim said sincerely, taking one of his hands into hers. It felt so _right_ that she was almost breathless. It was only for a moment as Ron quickly pulled his hand free to scratch at the back of his neck.

"Sorry KP. I'm kinda bummed. The dance was kind of a bust."

"Oh?" Kim's lips twisted as she remembered… "Your date didn't go so well?"

"Date?! What date? MY date?! Who said I had a date!?" Ron said as he began to hyperventilate. The clear signs of him lying were normally amusing, but there was something off about it this time.

"Ron, it's okay to talk about your date with me. I'm not jealous or anything." Trying to muster more sincerity, she muttered quietly, dejectedly, "Really, I'm not."

Ron's eyes crinkled in a weird way for a moment before he had a goofy grin on his face. "It wasn't really that much. The dance went all dramatic and my date…" He suddenly straightened up. "Oh! Oh no! I _totally_ ditched my date!"

Kim couldn't help but to chuckle at his reaction. Cheerily, flush with happiness that this went as good as it could, she elbowed him and said, "Looks like Romeo has some apologizing to do."

"Yeah, I do." He was clearly bummed.

"Hey, don't be like that. I'm sure he'll understand." She let her heart speak for a moment. "You're a really great guy. A good catch. Anyone that has you is lucky."

Ron gave Kim a strangely sad smile. "Thanks, KP. I'm gonna go see if I can hunt him down."

"Good." Kim wasn't sure what to do with herself for the moment. Deciding they could wallow together, she began offering, "If he doesn't want to listen, did you want to go to Bueno—"

_Beep-beep-be-beep_

Kim almost growled as she answered the Kimmunicator. "Wade, I'm kinda busy right now."

Wade looked strangely surprised. "Kim! You won't believe this!"

Her eyebrow lifted in challenge. "I'll probably believe it."

"Drakken! He's attacking Middleton High School!"

Kim blinked a few times. "Okay, so, maybe _this_ time I don't believe you."

"Uh, actually, I think I can hear screaming?" Ron said, hand cupped to his ear.

Now that Kim was listening, she _could_ hear shouting that didn't sound like the happy cries of a crowd. And looking at the school, she could see a light show going on that was _definitely_ not on the dance itinerary.

She put her game face on as she said, "I'm on it."

"Okay. Good luck!" Wade popped off the screen as Kim tucked the Kimmunicator back into her purse. She pulled out her sticky lipstick and mirror compact before handing the purse over to Ron.

"Could you hold onto this for me?" Ron looked confused before she clarified, "I can handle Drakken solo. You go find your date and make up."

"Oh! Right. Yes. My date. Who was definitely not Drakken." Ron was acting like he was lying again, but what in the world could he be lying about? "I guess I'll go to his house."

"Good." She dropped into mission mode. "Drakken is no big. Why he's attacking the school I don't know. But he won't get away with it."

* * *

"Mwahaha!" Drakken stood in the middle of the wrecked gym. Everything was destroyed. The tables. The pathetic excuse of a dj booth. The blasted concessions.

And around him people were cowering in fear.

Perfection. Seeing these children practically bowing before him made him feel _powerful_. They would rue the day that they dared to tangle with Drakken! ...Not that they would know it was him. That took some of the fun out of it.

He'd already gotten two of his three main targets. The principal looking guy was currently nearly pantsless, head buried in the grass outside. The jock that had tossed him was hanging by his underwear from the ceiling with his shirt pulled up and over his head. The third one…

Ah! There she was.

Drakken skipped over to the overturned table and kicked it to the side. Behind it were three cheerleaders. He really should know their names from his recon, but he was pretty much mentally blind with fury at the moment to bother to think of them. All he knew was the one behind the other two was his target.

"Move it!" he barked at the blonde and the black-haired girl. They ran for it in opposite directions. The third got up. Grabbing her by the shoulder, Drakken growled, "Ohhhh no. Not you. You stay."

"Like, what do you _want_?" the brunette snapped, snobby yet scared.

"Payback," Drakken said simply.

She looked confused. "What in the world did I do to a loser supervillain like you?"

"You did enough. That's all. And for that, you pay the price." Drakken twirled his raygun carelessly.

The cheerleader was fearfully eyeing the gun. "What...what's the price?"

"This." Drakken aimed and fired. The bright blue ray zoomed straight from the tip of the gun and hit his target head-on. A scream of terror shot through the gym as the brunette fell to the ground. He couldn't help but to laugh.

The cheerleader was on the ground, cradling her burnt-off locks. "My hair! My precious hair!" There was hatred in her eyes as she shouted, "Why couldn't you have, like, shot me in the chest or something?! Why would you do something so much _worse_!?"

"I'm a _supervillain _exacting revenge. Nothing but the worst from me!" Drakken crowed.

"You monster!" the blonde cheerleader shouted from behind the next nearest table.

"Yes, I am a monster, aren't I?" Drakken giggled.

"Monster? Yeah, right. More like a kiddie inflatable clown," an irritatingly familiar voice snarked from behind him.

He jerked around and shouted, "Kim Possible!"

As he expected, she was standing there all put together prettily. It was almost _infuriating_, knowing that she was around yet did nothing for her 'best friend'. She was probably enjoying seeing him fail without her there.

"Aw, I'm hurt. You didn't miss me?" Kimberly Anne quipped.

"Bah! Who could EVER miss you?!" Drakken spat, fully turning to face her. He saw out of the corner of his eye the other cheerleaders snuck over and grabbed their queen bee.

"So then, we gonna throw down? Or are you going to run with your tail between your legs like normal, especially since you're apparently...alone?" Kim Possible made a show of looking around. "Was this too juvenile even for Shego?"

"I didn't _need_ Shego's help with this," Drakken said, thoughts racing on how to cover himself being there. Suddenly, eureka! Letting a positively evil grin cross his face, he confidently said, "After all, making you look like a chump for not being able to stop me from destroying one of your precious dances is so easy even Dementor could do it!"

"As if!" Kimberly Anne rolled her eyes.

"Oh? So you're saying that I didn't wreck your dance?" Drakken needled. He spread his arms wide. "Look around you! You claim to be a heroine, but when push comes to shove you're simply _too little, too late_."

"Like, where _were_ you?!" the snobby cheerleader screamed, sending a thrill of satisfaction through Drakken. "HE WRECKED MY HAIR!"

Suddenly Kim Possible looked defensive. "I was...I was taking care of something personal." A determined look on her face, she growled, "Relationships are tough. But this?" She began marching towards Drakken. Drakken aimed at her with his raygun and fired. To his surprise, she casually deflected it with a mirror. A streak of panic hit him as she sped up and pulled her fist back. "This is _easy_."

* * *

Drakken limped down the street to his Middleton lair. He was exhausted. Exhausted, annoyed, and _covered_ in pink gunk. It was sticky, too, so he was picking up all sorts of things as he went. So far there was a chair, a squirrel, various rocks and plants, and a mailbox trailing behind him.

Bah! Stupid Kim Possible! She always thought she was better than everyone else. She didn't seem even _phased_ by the horrible treatment of Ron. It was like she didn't even know! But that thought was simply _ridiculous_. How could someone be that oblivious?

He dug through his pockets looking for his keys as he came up to the front of his lair. He was distracted, which is why he was taken by surprise at the sight of someone just sitting on the stoop of his door.

For a split-second, he mentally grumbled at the idea of a charity case on his step waiting for a donation. Drakken began sucking in a breath to start yelling at them to leave when he realized they looked familiar.

"Ron?" Drakken said, confused. Ron had been intent on talking with Kimberly Anne. Why was he waiting on Drakken's doorstep?

"Hey Drakken." Ron barely moved. But his voice...he was _obviously_ crushed, the words breaking up as he said them. Like his spirit had been ground into the dirt.

Drakken immediately forgot about his pains and the sticky pink mess around him as he sat down on the step next to Ron. It felt like no moment was more important than the one at that very second. Something bad had happened to Ron. Drakken would be there to hold him up. That was what best friends did, from what he'd read. So that was what he would do.

After several minutes, Ron finally said something. "KP and I talked." He was more put-together than he had been before, but he was still obviously struggling.

Drakken watched him carefully. "And…?"

Ron shuddered. "...You were right."

The satisfaction that rippled through Drakken was crushed by Ron's reaction to the truth. For clarification, Drakken asked, "About Kimberly Anne?"

His friend more drooped his head than nodded. His shoulders started shaking. "She said, that we need to grow up. That, that we…" Ron didn't seem to be able to say anything after that.

Drakken hesitated only a moment before he set a careful hand on Ron's back. That seemed to be all that was needed to break things as Ron was suddenly bawling into Drakken's chest.

"She's my BFF! I, I don't understand. Why doesn't she want to be best buds anymore?!" Ron was gasping into Drakken's chest. Drakken responded by wrapping Ron in a full hug.

"Kimberly Anne doesn't appreciate you," Drakken murmured soothingly. "No one understands you."

"Ex—except for you," Ron stuttered, voice muffled.

Again, Drakken felt a soul-deep satisfaction at the statement. "Yes. Yes, I do."

It was quiet again for a while. Drakken simply let Ron cry into his labcoat. The coat would need to be cleaned or tossed anyway. A few tears on it wouldn't hurt, and Ron clearly needed it. Drakken would do a lot for Ron. This was paltry compared to anything else Ron could ask for.

"I think…"

Drakken started paying attention again with the words.

"I think..." Ron repeated.

Leadingly, Drakken said, "You think…?"

"I think...I'm ready."

"Ready?" Drakken tried to _not_ get excited and assume, but he couldn't help it! He burst out, "Ready to help me?"

It was a long second before Ron nodded into Drakken's chest. "Yeah. Let's, let's…" He seemed to struggle with the words. "Let's conquer the world together."

Drakken cheered and hugged Ron even tighter. It wasn't just because of how excited he was. It was also because he didn't want Ron to see his face. He _knew_ he had a positively evil expression on his face. He couldn't help it! Was he being manipulative with Ron to bring him to the truth? Yes, he was. But it was for Ron's own good.

As Ron settled into the hug, Drakken decided on one important thing: Drakken wouldn't let anyone hurt Ron ever again.

* * *

**A/N: **Kim's speech is partially taken from So the Drama. i just fleshed it out a bit.

This might be the last chapter for a while. I made a big push to get the dance segment done while i was in quarantine. I'm gonna try to do puzzles and such the rest of my time stuck in my apartment. I hope you've enjoyed the fic so far!


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay." Ron looked at Rufus seriously. "We have a big decision ahead of us now. There's no going back once it's made."

"Uh-huh!" Rufus nodded from Ron's dresser.

"It's important. More important than anything else in our lives." Ron sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Awwww…"

"It's okay, Buddy! We got this!" Ron held the two main choices up. "So, what do I go with? Zorpox?"

"Nuh-uh!" Rufus shook his head.

Ron shook the other outfit. "Or Fearless Ferret?"

Rufus shook his head again before blowing a raspberry.

The blond dropped both his arms, the costumes falling to the ground. "Aw man! Really? Neither of them would work as my break-out villain outfit?"

"Not evil!" Rufus chittered.

Ron's eyes crinkled as he looked away. "Well, that's not true anymore. I'm still gonna help KP and all. But…" He couldn't help the sniffle to try and swallow his emotions. "...but I'm with Drakken now."

"Hmph!" Rufus crossed his arms and began tapping his foot.

"Look. Rufus. I know that you don't really get it." Ron scratched the back of his head. "But, but Drakken _does_. He understands me. I…" He shrank into himself. "I can't trust KP. I can't trust Felix. None of them...they don't…" His lungs felt tight as he tried to draw a breath. The reality still stung. "They don't care about me as much as I care about them."

"Hrmm…" Rufus was still tapping his foot. Then he growled, "Phewy!" before running for his cage.

"Awww man! You're making this harder than it already is!" Ron complained. "Just-"

"Ronald?" His mom opened the door to his room. Ron was surprised; normally she just walks in without caring for bothering him. He'd asked her to act as a buffer between him and other people, but to actually do it? Unheard of. She said, "Kimberly is downstairs waiting for you."

"Okay! Thank mom!"

She eyed the costumes on the floor. "Please put away your toys. Goodness knows we don't need Rufus nesting in them."

"No problem-o!" Ron kicked the costumes up into his arms. Smooth move! He was actually thrilled that he managed to pull it off. He shoved the costumes into his closet before he held his hand out to Rufus. "Let's go, Rufus."

"No!" Rufus shoved himself into the corner of his cage. It was clear he was still upset by Ron's decision.

"You sure? We can stop by Bueno Nacho~" Ron tempted.

He could see Rufus' mouth water. The naked mole rat then shook its head. "Nuh-uh!"

Ron sighed. He wished Rufus understood what he was going through. "Okay, Bud. I guess I'll catch you later."

He was barely out of his room before he was tackled by Kim. Irritation streaked through Ron. He supposed it was too much to ask to keep Kim at the door.

"Ron!" Kim put him at arm's length before murmuring, "The dance! Why didn't you tell me what happened?"

Kim almost sounded sincere in her concern. He shook it off; it was just her being a decent friend. Not his BFF. It was just...keeping him on a leash. Like Drakken had told him, she just wanted him around to make her feel better.

"It didn't really matter that much," the blond said as he shook his head. Kim looked unconvinced. He slapped on his best goofy smile as he added, "It's fine! Really!"

She bit her lip but nodded. "Okay. I believe you."

That was also why he didn't trust Kim. She didn't actually know him. Ron hadn't even realized how much it affected him until he took his mask off in front of Drakken. It hurt.

"What's on the schedule today?" Ron asked as he began leading Kim to the front door.

"Just hang-out time." Kim said regretfully, "I know we haven't hung out much. But just because we're not as close as we were doesn't mean that we aren't still friends."

The words stung.

So. It was true. Ron had hoped in a corner of his mind that he'd misunderstood Kim's words. Guess not.

"Yeah!" He agreed, trying to put sincerity in the empty word. "It means more free time for my plans."

Ron stumbled, realizing he'd said too much. Before he could retract, Kim's natural curiosity took hold as she asked, "Plans? What plans?"

His mind raced, trying to think of something, anything, to cover the fact that he was going to spend his spare time helping Drakken. "I, ah…" He had a spark of an idea as he ducked in and murmured to her, "I'm not sure I can tell you. Secret acting club and all."

"You mean _it's real_?!" Kim exclaimed.

"Shhhh!" Ron slapped a hand theatrically over Kim's mouth. "Yes! Keep it secret; you never know who's listening. The first rule of acting club: you don't talk about acting club."

"Right…" The redhead shook her head. "I guess I shouldn't have put it past you to root out a secret club."

"It's all a part of never being normal," Ron assured her, opening the front door. "You pick out these sorts of things. Just…" He nervously asked as he opened the front door, "Whenever I mysteriously vanish, could you just let me be? I don't want to get kicked out of the club."

He wasn't _lying_ per se. He WAS part of a club! Drakken's club! The club to undo everything Kim works hard to do.

Suddenly he felt nauseous. Ron swallowed it down, reminding himself of _why_ he was doing it.

"Okay. I'll leave you to your club," Kim agreed. Seeming to put it behind her almost instantly, she started as he closed the door behind him, "So, prom. I was thinking…"

* * *

"You're joking me." Shego was staring at Drakken like he'd grown an extra head. "The sidekick."

"THE SIDEKICK!" Drakken announced excitedly. "Ron is part of our plot now!"

"You convinced the lapdog to switch sides? _How_?" Shego seemed genuinely mystified. It made Drakken feel a sense of accomplishment.

"I just offered him something that Kimberly Anne couldn't," Drakken said mysteriously. He didn't want to mention it was genuine friendship. Goodness knew that Shego would find that ridiculous, as would any other villain that would find out after they all conquered the world. It would be best to just leave it as-is.

"Oooookay. So. We've got a mole now." Shego cocked her hip. "What use is he?"

"What use _isn't_ he?" Drakken countered. "Think of it! He can let us know if Kim Possible is catching on! Redirect her attention with whatever he thinks of! Help brainstorm the little details of the plan!"

"He's going to find out the plan before _me_?" Shego more growled than asked.

"You'll know when you need to know," Drakken assured her, brushing off her anger. "Until then, just follow my lead. You'll get Iceland in no time."

That seemed to disarm her. She shrugged. "Whatever. As long as I still get paid, I'll live."

"Good! Glad we're on the same page." Drakken excitedly shifted from foot to foot. "Now! I need you to help me with something."

"What is it this time? Counting higher than ten?"

"Nonono!" Drakken shook his head. He was still embarrassed about that. Trying to shift the mood, he sneakily said, "I need you to help me tap Global Justice's tube system."

"Uh…" Shego stared at him. "How are you gonna hide that fact?"

"Bah! Like Global Justice pays enough attention to their tubes to notice us redirecting a couple of their unused tubes," Drakken said. "It's just one tube, actually. We'll be setting it up to go from Ron's house to here."

"...This is a really bad idea. Why are you always full of bad ideas?" Shego asked.

"Hey! Ron needs to get here undetected somehow if he's going to help. Video calls just don't quite work." He didn't want to elaborate that the video calls don't work for multiplayer games that Ron was getting him hooked on. Smarmily, Drakken queried, "You don't think you can do it without getting caught?"

The spark of challenge in her eyes made Drakken happy. It meant it would go smoothly. Shego never let a challenge best her.

"I'll go take care of that," Shego said, cracking her knuckles. "From here to the sidekick's house?"

"The treehouse," Drakken said. "Ron said that they don't use it anymore. The perfect place to put it!"

"Right." Shego shook her head. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"I know _exactly_ what I'm doing," Drakken said with an evil smile.

"Good." She left the scheming room then, shutting the door behind her with a thud.

Drakken took a moment to let her go away before he excitedly called out, "You can come out now!"

Ron tumbled out from the supply closet. He got up, brushing himself off and shoving the mop off his head. "Dude, I thought you were gonna introduce us?"

"Shego needs time to adapt to the change," Drakken said. "She would've hit you with plasma if you'd just been here or jumped out at her." He kept his trap shut on the second reason, that he wanted Ron all to himself for a little while longer. Remembering his little gift, Drakken dug around in his pocket. "I have a gift for you~"

"A gift?" Ron looked confused. "What in the world did you get me? A matching teddy bear?"

"No! No teddy bear can match Lord Stuffington!" Drakken snapped. Like he could actually find something that rare that fast! Shaking his head, he proclaimed, hand closing over the object, "Behold! I made you…"

He whipped it out and held it up high.

"...your own communication device!"

Ron looked gobsmacked. "You made that...for me? When I just joined the team, like, a few days ago?"

"You're important!" Drakken insisted, skipping over to Ron and shoving the device into Ron's hands. "I can feel that you'll be integral to the success of my plot!"

"Really?" Ron looked the communicator over. "Can I call this the Ronnicator?"

"That sounds stupid," Drakken said flatly.

"Hey! It's no less stupid than Lord Stuffington!" Ron complained.

Drakken stomped his foot, then gruffly said, "Fine! Call it whatever you want! Just don't expect _me_ to call it that."

"Booyah!" Ron began poking the buttons on the front. "What all does it do?"

Drakken giggled as he began counting off. "It's a communicator with encrypted transmission that even that tech guru of Kim Possible's would take some effort to break. It also has Ping, can stream some tv stations, it's connected to my database, and can double as a ghost sensor!"

The blond tilted his head. "A ghost sensor? Why would I need that?"

"I…" Drakken's finger was up in victory before he paused. Why _had_ he put that in? He couldn't remember. Shaking his head, he grumbled, "Just in case you're being haunted by Kimberly Anne's ego or something."

"I-" Ron looked like he wanted to say something but deflated instead. "Yeah."

Drakken was pretty sure it was because of his comment about Kim Possible. Was Ron wavering? Nono, Ron wouldn't do that to him. They were best friends! He was a better friend than Kimberly Anne. There was no reason Ron would choose her over Drakken. Still, Drakken went over to Ron and hugged him.

"You're the best friend I've ever had," Drakken said sincerely. "I'm glad you're joining me in conquering the world."

It took a moment, but Ron hugged him back. "Yeah. You're my best friend too."

The door suddenly opened and Shego walked in. "Yo, what time should I go get Nakasu-" She froze, staring at the two of them.

Drakken immediately dropped Ron. "Uh...hi. You should, uh, go whenever it feels right."

Shego stared for a few moments longer before shaking her head. "I do _not_ get paid enough for this."

"At least you get paid?" Drakken shot Ron a look. Like he needed to egg Shego on!

For some reason, instead of getting angry Shego chuckled. "Yeah. I guess I could always be a sucker like you."

"Exactly!" Ron looked to be thinking on it as Shego turned back around and walked out again. "Hey, wait a minute!"

Shego's laughter echoed even after the door was shut.

"Gah!" Drakken smacked his head. "I can't believe it's already time!"

"Time?" Ron looked confused. "Time for what?"

Ah. Right. He hadn't told Ron about his plan. That was an easy fix!

"Right!" Drakken began directing Ron to the main plotting room. "I'll start from the top: we need a brilliant toy design from that Nakasumi guy. Shego's going to go kidnap him tonight, at the parade he'll be in."

Ron stopped. "Uh? Nakasumi?" He scratched his head. "I could probably get that for you instead of you doing the whole evil supervillain thing."

Drakken froze mid-step. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah! We've helped him out before. I could probably wrangle something from him if you wanted," Ron said so easily that it was almost insulting.

Drakken's mind raced at the new information. Getting the toy design. Without revealing his cards to Kim Possible. Was it even possible?

Apparently it was.

"Yes! You do that!" Drakken began racing for the door. "Let me stop Shego, then you call him up and ask for a design!"

"Roger roger!" Ron said, saluting unnecessarily. "I get to play with the Ronnicator~"

Drakken burst through the door, racing as fast as he could. If he could catch Shego before she left, they could keep their plans under wraps! They wouldn't need to give Kim Possible any glimpse of the plan! Already Ron was proving to be a good, solid partner.

He was so happy Ron was with them. Ron wouldn't regret it. Drakken would make sure Ron would be happier than he'd ever been before.

* * *

"Ugh!" Kim scratched her head as she grumbled across her textbook at Ron. "I can't believe that you got your homework done before me!"

"I know, right?" Ron chortled. Drakken's resources were very helpful for doing his schoolwork. Many would call it 'cheating'. Ron just considered it 'resource management'. He shoved a handful of naco into his mouth. Through the grease and cheese he said, "I wish Rufus would stop being a wet towel."

"You two are still fighting?" Kim sighed, looking at Ron with some pity. "This is the longest you two have ever butted heads."

"He's just behind. He doesn't like me being part of acting club," Ron grumbled. He was really pressing the 'acting club' part. It was a necessary cover, especially now that he had a direct line to Drakken's lair and Drakken himself.

"Acting club, acting club…" Kim shook her head, then teased, "You'd better be careful! I might decide to sneak up on your meetings."

"How? We're super-secret!" Ron said, curious.

"Well, there's the chip for one." His heart dropped in his chest. He'd forgotten about that. "Second, you're not the stealthiest person in the world."

"KP." Ron put on the most serious face he dared to show Kim. If he was too serious, she would get concerned and probably try snooping anyway. "I need you to promise me that you won't try to go after my acting club stuff."

Kim blinked. "Ron?"

"_Please_. Don't wreck this for me," Ron pleaded. He was hoping even with as weak of a friendship they had that she would heed him.

The redhead seemed to think it over for a moment. "...Okay. I'll leave you to your secret club."

"Thank you," Ron said sincerely, relieved. But that didn't mean he could relax. There were other things he needed to do to ensure that Kim didn't stumble upon him and Drakken's connection. He needed to play this smart.

"Well then…" Kim had a sly smile on her face as she asked, "Since you've already got this done, any chance you could give me a hand?"

Ron took a slow bite of his companion nachos, thinking on what Shego had shown him on his homework. "Okay. But! You need to buy the next round of nacos."

"It's a deal."

* * *

Ron shut his door behind him. He looked over to Rufus' cage as he swung the bag in his hand. "Rufus! I have nachos for you!"

"Nachos?" Rufus' claws extended from his cage, waving Ron over. Ron pulled out the nachos and set them inside the cage. The naked mole rat still looked rebellious, but seemed to temporarily accept Ron's offering.

"You're a good buddy," Ron said. "I'm glad you're so concerned for me."

He turned and flopped out on his bed. Carefully he dug in his pocket for his Ronnicator. Swallowing, he activated it.

It took a few seconds before Drakken answered. It looked like he was in the middle of eating some noodles and sesame chicken. "Yes? What is it, Ron?"

This was it. The first really big step to going behind Kim's back.

He steeled himself as he asked, "Hey, do you think you could remove the tracking chip Wade put in me?"

* * *

**A/N: **Had a brainflash that led to a finished chapter. Yay~


End file.
